Our Bright and Sunny Futures
by apikale-wahine
Summary: The gang has graduated and gotten an ultracool job working together. Yet it is only after Freddie gets Daphne in trouble that real change is in the air, not only for them but for Shaggy and Velma as well. Ship: FredDaphne, ShaggyVelma
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1:

"Hey, Daphne… you're late," Fred told her as she raced into the Snack Shack, where the others had agreed to meet at exactly six o'clock and had already ordered and received their food.

"Sorry… doctor's appointment," she explained hastily. Fortunately, there wasn't a huge line for the counter-it being a Monday night and all-and within five minutes Daphne had a hot dog and a drink and was situated with her friends again, although she really didn't feel like eating or talking too much.

The others, however, were gleeful-just as Daphne had been, even upon waking up this morning-and their lively chatter was not something she wanted to spoil.

"So, like, isn't it groovy we all managed to graduate a semester early and land the same job?" Shaggy commented, and the others nodded in agreement. The fact that even Shaggy had achieved this feat meant that the gang could get back together months before they ordinarily could have. Being at separate colleges had been rough on all of them, but it had been hardest on Scooby and Shaggy, who were used to never being separated. Alas, Shaggy's dorm had not allowed pets of any kind, so it had been a very long three-and-a-half years.

Imitating Shaggy, Fred added " 'Isn't it groovy' that not only do we have the same job, but it's only two-and-a-half hours from Coolsville-our hometown?"

"Yeah…" Shaggy sighed, feeling nostalgic memories wash completely through him. He straightened just then, though. "But like, why haven't they been so clear on what we're actually _doing _at this… Coolsville Communication Center? Or why it's not exactly in Coolsville?"

"Orientation is tomorrow. I'm positive they'll offer an explanation then," Velma told him. "But they did mention ambassadors. I hope they have translators. I'm fluent in most of the major world languages, but my Tagalog and Cantonese could use a ton of work…"

"Don't worry, Velma," Fred told her, smiling. "If knowing other languages was so important they wouldn't have hired us. None of us was a foreign language major." It was true. Shaggy was a culinary arts major; Daphne had gone into aesthetics and design; Fred had taken English; and Velma had double-majored in marine biology and human factors engineering. Clearly it didn't really matter what kind of degree they had; only that they had one.

"I guess you're right," Velma told him. "I guess we'll just have to wait until our job starts tomorrow."

"Speaking of that… if it's convenient with the rest of you I can pick you up in the Mystery Machine. Be ready by seven-thirty," Fred offered. Shaggy, Scooby, and Daphne suppressed a groan; Fred and Velma were the morning people of the bunch. Still, a ride was a ride, so they thanked Fred.

Daphne looked around. Conversation had entered a bit of a lull; here was her opportunity. Shaggy and Scooby went up to the counter and ordered more food; no doubt they would be there a while. Now all she needed was to distract Velma.

Daphne reached into her bag and pulled out a _National Geographic _she had picked up at the mall on the way back from the doctor's office. She had hoped to find an issue of _Discover, _a journal Velma followed as though it were a TV soap, but at your typical newsstand when you were in a hurry, finding even a _National Geographic _was doing well.

"There's an article in here I thought you might find interesting, Velma," she told her friend. It was a lie; Daphne had not so much as opened the cover. But fortunately Velma assumed she knew what Daphne meant.

"Oh! This one about the cultural diffusion between the-"

"Er… yeah, that's it…" Daphne told her hastily. She waited a minute until Velma was clearly absorbed, knowing she wouldn't put the magazine down until she was completely done with the article. Then Daphne motioned to Fred, and catching on, he slipped out the door with her into the night air.

**A/N: **I promise you, this is the most boring chapter of all fifteen I have written so far. That's right- I've got lots of chapters written; I just want to see what people think before posting more, so please review! This is going to be a long story- I've got like 36 or 37 chapters planned out- but I'll try not to make any one chapter too long. Incidentally, while _human factors engineering _sounds like a made-up subject, that's actually my dad's job... basically he's a psychologist who works with designing things so people don't make mistakes and hurt themselves. Classic example: If a car has the gas pedal too close to the break pedal, they could hit the wrong pedal when they need to stop. Okay, I'm as bad as Velma... sorry.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer (sorry I forgot last time): I do not own Scooby Doo... nor any dog. I do, however, have two very sweet parakeets...**

Chapter 2:

They eased their way out the side door, onto that tiny sidewalk just before the drive-thru. Daphne leaned against the railing, shivering in the March wind. Fred was still smiling; he had no idea what he was in for.

"So, Daphne, what did you want to 'talk' to me about?" He grinned. In all likelihood, he assumed she just wanted to sneak off and smooch.

_I could still pretend_, Daphne realized. _We could just make out and go back in; I haven't gone too far to turn back. _She sighed. That was a lie. The truth was, they had _both _gone too far to turn back; that was what she needed to talk about.

_Besides, _the responsible side of Daphne told herself, _you have to tell him eventually. Before long there will be no hiding it, and he'll probably react better now than later. Besides, this has every bit to do with him that it has to do with you, and to leave him completely in the dark would be extremely selfish._

Fred's face was falling even though Daphne hadn't said anything yet. Sure, he still had that gorgeous smile, but it was obviously forced, strained. It was dawning on him that this was serious. Not only was it serious; it was serious enough that Daphne was telling only him and not the whole gang at once.

Daphne drew herself to her full height. She had to work up the courage. It was like the proverbial horse one fell from: If you didn't face your fear immediately, it would only become harder to face when facing it was inevitable.

She felt her hands grow clammy as she tried to find the exact right words.

"Freddie? There's something I need to tell you. Something we weren't counting on…"

By now, Fred's mind was clearly running through all the possibilities. No doubt somewhere in the stream he was considering was the real and difficult truth.

Daphne lost her nerve again. She didn't have to tell him; she didn't have to tell him. Unfortunately lying to yourself only makes it all the harder to face the truth.

_Two words, _she told herself. _Two words and you've told him. Two words and you've told him _everything.

Taking a deep breath, Daphne said what she knew she needed to say:

"I'm pregnant."

**A/N: **Again, reviews are appreciated... although seeing as this thing's gonna be really long I don't expect them for every chapter. That, and I can write these things pretty fast, so you might not always get the chance... thanks for reading.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer (I wouldn't throw this in, but seeing as I forgot the first one I'm feeling guilty): **I do not own Scooby Doo. Cry.

Chapter 3:

Freddie stared at her, shocked. Time seemed to have stopped. Those next few seconds felt impenetrably long as he processed the truth.

Then he leaned in. He drew her into a hug. He stroked her long, red hair in silence. This, at least, felt good.

He spoke at last. "I… I thought you were on…"

"I was," Daphne told him. "I don't know why it didn't work. Today at the doctor's office caught me completely off-guard."

Freddie found himself no longer frustrated at what had appeared to be another tardiness from Daphne. He felt guilty now. Guilty for getting mad, however slightly. Guilty for doing this to her in the first place…

He kissed her calmly. "It's okay," he told her, although in reality he was every bit as scared as she was. "We- we'll get through this. Somehow."

Daphne looked up at him. She nodded but didn't say anything.

Fred went on. "And… and we'll have to tell the others, you know."

Daphne cringed. She knew they were her best friends. She knew she would have to share this information with them, just like she had with Fred. But facing three people seemed a hundred times harder than facing one. It was a good thing she wasn't a math major.

"Okay," she told him. "I guess when I start showing-"

"That's not what I meant," Fred told her. "I meant we should tell them… tonight."

"Tonight?" Surely that was impossible. "No, Freddie!"

Fred looked at her, surprised at this louder-than-necessary outburst.

"I mean…" Daphne tried to regain her composure. "I mean, how many couples let other people know this early on in the game anyway? Lots of things could change at this point. I… I could miscarry… or maybe I'm not really pregnant at all. Maybe the lab test was wrong, or the doctor mixed up my paperwork with someone else's..." Her voice trailed off. She knew that even now, the odds of a mistake on the doctor's part were slim. She had observed walking in that every inch of the room was meticulous, and a file mix-up seemed nearly impossible. Still, she was trying to think of something- anything- that might possibly mean that this reality was not happening.

Fred sighed. "Daphne, I know it will be difficult... but these are our friends, and we trust them with everything. They'll help us through this, and if any of that other stuff happens... they'll be there for us too."

"But so soon?" Daphne asked. "I can't just go in now. I'm still recovering from the shock of telling you."

"Well, the night's still young... tell you what. We were thinking of all going to a movie after dinner... then we might stop somewhere for ice cream or coffee or something. You can tell them then."

"I... okay," Daphne breathed. She felt a tear materialize in her eye. She blinked fiercely, determined not to cry...

Fred held her tighter and kissed her. She kissed him back. Neither of them felt sure of what was in store for them, but this was what felt good now.

"_There _you are!" Velma's voice came from the doorway. "You're lucky this thing doesn't have a porch light. I should have figured as much..."

Daphne almost laughed at the irony. She had been tempted to do nothing more than kiss in this private space; now Velma assumed that was what had happened the whole time. Realizing the others were done eating, Fred and Daphne neglected their unfinished meals and climbed into the Mystery Machine with the rest of the gang.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4:

Everyone else was enjoying the movie. As for Daphne, she couldn't even remember the protagonists' names. Supposedly it was a comedy; Daphne didn't so much as giggle the entire show. She vaguely remembered a salty taste in her mouth- apparently she ordered popcorn- and her left leg falling asleep; other than that, she might not have realized she had been to the theater at all.

Afterward, Fred suggested a trip to the Malt Shop. He was great at sounding casual. He even looked like he had paid attention to the movie. Was he faking it? Or was he honestly not worried sick about the future?

Silence seemed to fall over the gang as they walked to a table. Daphne tried to find the right words to express it, but everything seemed wrong.

_"I'm pregnant." _This, of course, was the truth, but it seemed too sudden, too abrupt, too out-in-the-open.

_"Freddie and I are expecting." _No, that wasn't right either. It sounded like a married couple who had been trying for years to have a baby, not a couple of barely-past-their-teens who had been caught off-guard.

_"I'm going to have a baby." _Even worse. It sounded like a basic, let's-explain-it-for-the-little-kids description.

_"I am with child." _Ugh, what century was this anyway?

_"I got knocked up." _Ah, no. But frustratingly it felt like the most accurate description so far.

"Daphne? Hello, Earth-to-Daphne...?" Velma poked Daphne's shoulder.

"Uh, what?" Daphne responded stupidly.

"I asked if you wanted... oh, never mind. Daphne, are you okay? You've been sort of spaced out this evening..."

So much for hoping Freddie would tell the gang. Velma had asked _Daphne, _specifically. Daphne had to answer. Now.

"Well..." Daphne tried to think. Finally she spoke.

"Let's just say that in several months, Mystery Inc. will have a sixth member..."

It was about the dumbest way to put it; the hint made absolutely no sense. Daphne watched the puzzled expressions on Velma's, Shaggy's, and Scooby's faces; then, surprisingly, Velma's eyes lit up and she smiled. She leaned across the table and gave Daphne a hug.

"This explains a lot," she told her friend. "Congratulations."

Congratulations?

"I mean, it explains the fact that you've been sick the past few mornings... and that doctor's appointment. I mean, that is it, right?"

Daphne nodded. Somehow Velma always remembered everything and pieced it all together. Sheesh, she probably suspected Daphne was pregnant before Daphne did.

"Well, it's good to know you weren't actually sick or anything..."

Suddenly Daphne understood the real reason Velma had congratulated her. She probably understood the pregnancy wasn't intentional. Yet it was likely a relief to know that your friend was in good health and not dying of AIDS or something.

Daphne caught a glimpse of Shaggy and Scooby looking at each other and shrugging. Clearly neither of them got it, still.

Then Velma asked, "So when are you due?"

_Now _they seemed to understand, and for some reason were blushing.

"November 14," Daphne answered her.

"Jinkies... that's a long way to go..."

Daphne sighed. "Well, I've only known for a few hours that I even am pregnant. I haven't even called home about it yet..."

A new fear crept into Daphne's mind. What would her father say? He had always been very strict, very orderly, and the idea that _his _daughter, of all people, had been impregnated out of wedlock would shame him to tears.

Would he even speak to her? Daphne had often pondered that as a curious middle-schooler, playing those what-if games at sleepovers: What would your parents do if you were pregnant and you weren't married?

"Probably disown me," she had answered gleefully, giggling and reaching for the Fritos. At age 11, it felt so grown-up to ask those kinds of questions; now, at age 21, the question was a horrifying reality.

Would the answer be?

Velma stroked Daphne's arm reassuringly. "You'll have time for all that. But for now, shouldn't we celebrate?" She smiled her nerdy, yet oddly comforting smile.

Daphne felt her mood shift entirely. Velma was right; sure, Daphne would have to tell her father, and he might or might not react every bit as harshly as she imagined.

But right now, why not celebrate? Daphne felt herself infinitely grateful to Velma, who had found a reason to be happy for her even now- and why shouldn't she be? Whether she had tried for one or not, Daphne now had a baby- she may as well enjoy it.

As the remainder of the evening went on, Daphne felt the support of her loyal friends more and more. She realized that she would definitely keep the baby, and what surprised her more was:

Deep down, she really, really wanted it.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: **From the story so far, the "sci-fi" label on the description probably looks pretty bizarre. Let me just tell anyone who has been following patiently that here is where that label comes into play. The next chapter goes more into that and (I believe) is the longest chapter so far, so sit tight!

Chapter 5:

The Mystery Machine pulled up in front of a one-story house and stopped. Freddie was about to climb out and knock on the door when Velma walked out, clearly ready, and Daphne ran out, clearly not. They were sharing a house for economic reasons (mostly on Velma's part; despite having won many scholarships, a Yale education isn't cheap for anyone), and it was fortunate, because without Velma there to wake her up Daphne probably still would have been asleep.

For a change, Velma actually looked better than Daphne this morning, although it had less to do with a sense of fashion and more to do with the fact that she was lively, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. Daphne, on the other hand, was trying to brush her hair with one hand and eat the yogurt she had snagged as a quick breakfast with the other. She clutched a makeup kit under her arm, clearly intent on applying it on the road. The harried girl climbed into the front seat next to Freddie, while Velma piled into the back with Shaggy and Scooby, who like Daphne were a total mess but unlike Daphne weren't trying to improve the situation.

"Hey Daphne," Fred told her, trying to be cheerful. "How are you feeling?"

"_Fine, _Freddie," Daphne responded moodily, trying not to spill her yogurt as the van swung around a curve.

"Are you sure? Because I can-"

"Freddie- I said I am _fine._" Fred caught a glimpse in the rearview mirror of Velma shaking her head. Daphne certainly didn't look fine. Morning sickness paired with a rickety old van had turned her face as green as Shaggy's shirt.

"Look, I can roll down the window if-"

"Freddie! It's March!" came three cries from the back seat (okay, so one of the cries sounded more like "Reddie! Rit's Rarch!" but you get the idea). Daphne, however, seemed appreciative despite her moodiness, and within minutes her green color and nausea had subsided, as well as her frustration.

"So what do the rest of you guys think our job's going to be like?" she asked, now through with her yogurt and attempting to neatly apply mascara in spite of the periodic jolt of the vehicle.

"Well, like, we can find out in just a few minutes," Shaggy pointed out, shivering in the window's breeze. "Look, there's the CCC."

_Don't remind me, _thought Daphne, trying faster to do a decent job on the makeup. She gave up, accepted the way it looked now, and followed the others out of the van.

They were greeted by a short, bald man whose nametag read "Jacques Mangetout." "Greetings," he told them. "You must be Mystery, Inc. Welcome. After reading about your work around the globe, it is an honor to have you here at the Coolsville Communication Center."

"So, like, what are we supposed to be doing here?" Shaggy asked, wondering why a communication center would have any need for mystery solvers.

"That I cannot tell you, at least not outside. You understand that security is very strict around here for a reason. You are to be given full clearance, with the understanding that you will reveal this to _no one._" He seemed very serious on that point. He started walking towards a set of double doors, and the gang followed him.

"You should understand that the CCC was given a name that is intentionally vague, because details of our program are guarded national secrets. Ah, here we are." They had passed through the doors and into a small lobby, with walls painted paled lavender and small palm trees in the corners.

"Now that we're in here, I can tell you. This room is secure. Ordinarily you need a retinal scan to be allowed in; you were able to enter only because I punched in the code to deactivate the doors for five seconds." He pulled a small remote out of his pocket. "Later today we will need to record your images so tomorrow you can get in on your own. But first let me explain to you what you will be doing."

_Finally, _everyone said to him- or herself.

"Basically I need you kids to do what you've been doing for years- solving mysteries. Only this isn't something I expect you to do within hours… this is a regular job. The mysteries never cease when you're working with aliens."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

"Raliens? Rhere?" Scooby asked, alarmed.

"The Coolsville Communications Center's real purpose is exactly that," Mr. Mangetout explained. "When aliens from across the galaxy wish to contact Earth for any reason, they either send a message or come in person to our center. The trouble is, sometimes they are willing to work with us and with other alien races… and sometimes they aren't. I need you kids to search the facility for clues and alert us to any signs of foul play."

"How… serious of foul play are we talking about?" Daphne asked nervously.

Mr. Mangetout sighed. "All of that depends. Sometimes it's as simple as trying to smuggle illegal substances into the center- yes, there are some things that have been universally outlawed across the galaxy. You'll become more familiar with these substances after you read the manual." He passed out a rather large paperback book to each of them.

Someone walked in and tapped Mr. Mangetout. The gang almost gasped, but tried hard to be polite after realizing that, although mostly humanoid, the person was only three feet tall, with electric-blue skin.

"This is Mr. Yax Fizlayer," Mr. Mangetout introduced. "He's going to show you around this facility and get you accustomed to the layout. He's also going to share with you a major mystery we've been working on for years. As for me, I'm needed in Conference Room J, so while it's been great talking to you, I must be going."

As Mr. Mangetout left, Mr. Fizlayer bowed deeply. "I have been told of the great mysteries you have solved on your own planet. Perhaps you can help us with ours."

"Like, what kind of mystery are you talking about?" Shaggy inquired.

"I was going to show you shortly after giving you a tour. But as you seem so enthusiastic, I can give you the tour later."

The blue man walked out of the room, indicating the gang should follow. He led them down a narrow hallway and to an elevator. He pushed the down button.

After taking the elevator down twenty-eight stories- Velma was counting- they exited into a huge, black room. There were no lights in there at all, save for that emitted from a strange orb that hovered in the middle of the room. The orb was bright green and roughly the size of a soccer ball. The gang felt entranced.

"This," Mr. Fizlayer told them, "is the Fizlayen Orb of Power. It is typically kept in the possession of the Fizlayen Royal Family, who share the last name of the planet."

"Does that mean you're…?" Freddie asked, amazed.

"I am." Mr. Fizlayer nodded. "But that's not important now. See, the Fizlayen sun burned out centuries ago. We were terrified, and thought ourselves doomed. But this device pumps out enough energy every second to match what a star would in a year. Through extremely powerful batteries produced from this device's energy, we can actually heat our planet properly and give proper electromagnetic energy to our crops."

"Jinkies," Velma asked. "Is this a-?"

"It is a perpetual energy generator, yes."

"But it can't just make energy come out of nowhere," Velma told him, stunned. "It's impossible."

"Very, very complicated," Mr. Fizlayer told her, "but never impossible."

"But if it's so important to your planet," Daphne asked, "why is it here on Earth?"

"Originally," Mr. Fizlayer told her, "it _was_ on Fizlayer. That was much easier than having to transport batteries there from Earth. But then we went to war with our enemies, the Physhuns. They launched some of their strongest weapons on it to cut off our power supply. Luckily they missed, but I realized that the safest thing would be to relocate the Orb until the war was over. That hasn't happened yet. But I'm concerned that attempts are being made to steal the Orb even as we speak."

"Are… are the Physhuns here?" Shaggy asked, frightened.

"They are not," Mr. Fizlayer informed him. "The Physhuns may be fierce, but they are primitive in that they have not established contact with Earth nor (with the exception of Fizlayer) with any other planet outside their solar system. We have received threat letters from a race which calls themselves the Veqs, but neither us nor Earth nor any other planet with CCC contact has ever encountered one. But we have every reason to suspect they may have it in them to desire the destruction of my people."

A very sad, wise look crossed his face. Mr. Fizlayer was clearly determined to save his planet, but he seemed fearful, as though he had given up hope. Suddenly, he lost that look and stood up straight.

"Well, I guess that's enough of that. Let me show you the rest of our facility, then I'll scan your eyes and you can go."

The center, interesting though it was, was enormous, and by the end of the tour the gang was just a little tired of walking and just a little worried that tomorrow they still wouldn't remember their way around. Thus, it was a relief when Mr. Fizlayer led them into a small room and instructed Velma to remove her glasses.

"Now, this will be simple, just place your head here…" Mr. Fizlayer instructed. He was about to flip a switch when he stopped himself.

"Actually, I forgot… policy here dictates that before using any of this equipment in here, employees must be inquired about any health conditions they may have. So do you have any injuries, diseases, disabilities, allergies…?" he asked Velma.

"Besides the glasses and my asthma… nothing. Why? Is it… harmful?"

"No, not usually to _Homo sapiens_… just that a lot of other equipment is kept in here that could potentially be, so standard procedure is to ask before using anything. Do any of the rest of you have any health conditions I should be aware of?"

"Like, besides a food addiction?" Shaggy asked. Velma rolled her eyes. Mr. Fizlayer clearly did not get the joke.

"Is it… possible for your species to develop a chemical dependency on nourishment?"

"No, Shaggy's just fooling around," Freddie told him.

"Oh, well in that case, _besides_ a food addiction…"

Everybody looked at Daphne. This was embarrassing, but she stepped forward.

"I'm… I'm pregnant…"

Mr. Fizlayer frowned. "It is a good thing I have been informed, then. Some of the radiation that flows from this machinery can cause birth defects in humans. It wasn't designed by Earthlings nor by _Homo sapiens, _and neither did they construct it. We can issue you a remote, and you can use a code to enter instead. Just try to conceal the remote; we like to keep the number issued to a minimum, to avoid the possibility of unauthorized personnel using it to break in. I'll have to ask you to wait outside while the others are scanned; as long as we close the door you won't be exposed…"

"Okay," Daphne told him softly, then went out to wait in the hall. Somehow, she felt lonelier than she had in a long time…

**A/N: **There. See? This is why I labeled it sci-fi. It just wouldn't be a Scooby-Doo fanfic without something atypical (at least, when the story is this long one feels like one should include something supernatural), and I like aliens better than ghosts (not that I know any!). I hope somebody catches my shout-out to "sublevel twenty-eight."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7:

Freddie picked up the phone. He tried to dial the number, but his fingers kept shaking. He couldn't remember the last time he felt this nervous calling Daphne, not since middle school when he first asked her to the "Snow Ball," a Christmas dance, as "friends."

An eon had passed since then. Back then his only fear was the reaction when people found out he might "like" a girl. Now he was twenty-one. An adult. And the old fear seemed cute, maybe even comical. Would this fear ever seem that way?

Velma answered the phone. "Hello?"

"Hi, Velma... is Daphne there?" Freddie didn't even need to say who he was. The gang had recognized each other's voices perfectly since they were thirteen.

"Actually, Freddie, she just set off for your place, maybe five minutes ago... she said she wanted to talk to you."

"So she leaves and when I call she's not there."

"Basically." Velma giggled. "But actually, it's better this way. See, I'm going to need the phone a lot this evening, regarding my student loans and whatnot."

"Yeah, yeah, I get it. I guess I'll just straighten up the place for when she gets here. Thanks."

"See ya."

Freddie hung up the phone and turned around.

The place was a _wreck._

He started with the half-eaten chip bags-- those were the most obvious abomination-- and the Superman comics he'd sworn he gave up his freshman year of high school. He worked his way down from there, so by the time Daphne arrived he was about to dig out the vacuum cleaner. Well, now that she was here, what could he do?

"Hey, Daphne," he said, opening the door, pretending he hadn't received a tip-off from Velma that his girlfriend was coming over. "What a surprise."

"I know, I know. But I had to talk with you in person... I don't know why. Nothing makes sense, lately." She followed him into the living room and plopped down next to him on the couch.

"I think I know what you mean..." Freddie told her, and watched her bright eyes close as she sighed. She was beautiful...

Freddie had often imagined her, back when all they were doing was dating (and occasionally kissing), years in the future, someday when maybe they were married. He had imagined the scene where she would tell him she was pregnant, and they would both be enthralled at the prospect of being new parents. Or maybe she wouldn't have to tell him. Maybe he would have been sitting right next to her at the doctor's office, both anticipating the results...

But all that was gone now. Yes, this was their first child, but they weren't married, not even engaged, and this baby had been an accident. Sure, a lot of things could change... he could ask her to marry him. Sheesh, he could even do so right now. He didn't have a ring, and he hadn't asked Mr. Blake, and they weren't in a very romantic setting... but still, he could ask...

He snapped out of it. This was stupid. Yes, he and Daphne were in love, and Freddie had often dreamed of marrying Daphne, but they had never talked about it... not really. Maybe Daphne had never even thought about marrying him... maybe to her he was just another boyfriend. Sure, they had been going out off-and-on since (excluding that one dance in middle school) tenth grade, but they had never actually stayed together more than a year... until now, anyway. Up until the start of their junior year of college, they had broken up periodically, Daphne would start dating someone else, she would get tired of him, she and Fred would get back together, and the whole thing would start over again.

But maybe this time was different. Maybe this time was serious. They hadn't broken up yet... but was that because they were older, more mature, and more committed, or just because it was hard to get tired of someone who lived at a completely different school and only saw you a few times a year?

What if Daphne didn't feel about him the way he felt about her? What if he really _was _"just another boyfriend," and just happened to be the one who left her stuck with it? What if she was even mad at Freddie, now that, whether they would get married or not, they would have to somehow find a way of raising this kid together?

What if?

Freddie had been so lost in thought that the sound of snoring almost scared him. Daphne had fallen asleep against his arm. She looked so peaceful, like she trusted him completely and wasn't at all mad at him for getting her pregnant. She didn't look like she was worried about anything at all...

Freddie crossed his fingers and hoped that sleep wouldn't lie...

**A/N: **I know, I know... some people would say that line about Fred not having asked Daphne's father is completely sexist... forgive me and go along with it, okay?


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8:

Freddie had just finished dropping off Daphne and Velma after work and was just pulling into the parking lot of Shaggy's apartment complex when a thought struck him. Just as Shaggy and Scooby were getting out of the van, Fred turned around and said, "Hey Shaggy-- can I ask you a question?"

Shaggy shrugged and answered, "Sure, ask away... just follow me inside, my sandwiches are calling..." He ran up and unlocked the door. Fred followed slowly behind him.

They entered the kitchen, where Shaggy and Scooby each quickly and efficiently assembled half a dozen quadruple-decker sandwiches each. Freddie wasn't sure exactly where to begin.

"Well, I know this sounds really shocking... but I actually haven't dated as many girls as you." It was true. Shaggy had had a total of six girlfriends in his lifetime; Freddy had never really dated anyone besides Daphne. "I... I guess I don't really understand them as well as you... I need some advice, since there's something I really want to say to Daphne but I have no idea how..."

Shaggy looked up from his sandwich. He really was listening, absorbed though he might be in his food.

"How do I ask her to marry me?"

Shaggy almost choked on his sandwich, truly attempting not to laugh. "Well, you buy a ring, find a pretty spot, kneal down, ask her 'Will you marry me?' and that's about it." Honestly, that was how it happened in the movies...

Fred shook his head. "I meant... right now it's not that simple. You know, with the baby and all..."

"All the more reason to ask her," Shaggy responded, shrugging.

"That's exactly the problem..." Fred's voice trailed off. "If I ask her now, it might look like I'm only asking her to be responsible and not because I want to. But if I don't ask her now, and she has her baby and I still haven't asked her, she might assume I'm never going to, and then she'll start going out with someone else and... and I might never get to marry her." Fred lowered his head.

"Well, do you want to marry her?" Shaggy asked simply.

"Of course I do!"

"Then ask. If she doesn't want to marry you she'll say no, and if she does want to marry you she'll say yes, no matter what she thinks _your_ motivations are."

These were the most intelligent words Fred had ever heard coming out of Shaggy's mouth. They actually made a lot of sense. But still...

"Like nothing ventured, nothing gained!" Shaggy added when Fred hadn't said anything. This coming from a guy who was scared of his own shadow...

"Okay," breathed Fred. "I-I'll ask her." Famous last words.

"Just one question, Freddie..." Shaggy asked through a mouthful of kielbasa.

"What's that?"

"If she says yes, can I be 'best man'?"

Freddie smiled, the first he had since entering Shaggy's apartment. "Definately."

He started to head towards the door, then turned around.

"Thank you so much, Shaggy..."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9:

Shaggy watched Freddie leave, then shook himself.

Did he just say that he and Daphne were getting married?

No, actually he didn't. He said that he was going to ask Daphne to marry him... not that she would necessarily say yes. But still...

Why did this feel _bad, _somehow?

Shaggy was puzzled. When Fred first admitted that he wanted to propose to Daphne, Shaggy had been earnestly and 100 percent excited for him. But by the time Freddie left, a strange sadness had filled Shaggy.

Was it that deep down he didn't feel Fred and Daphne were right for each other? That was a very simple explanation. But it didn't seem like the answer-- somehow Shaggy and Velma and Scooby had all kind of assumed that their friends would get married eventually, even when they were kids. It seemed that for them _not _to get married would be far stranger and more wrong, especially now that there was an obligation...

So the problem wasn't a concern for his friends. As Shaggy searched himself, he realized he wasn't feeling _sorry_ for anyone...

Except himself.

Shaggy wasn't worried about Fred; he was... jealous of him?

Oddly, that did feel right. But if Shaggy was jealous, what was he jealous _for_?

Daphne?

This idea seemed more alien than the ones Shaggy had just gotten used to working with. Still, he had to test it, to see if it were true, to rule out all possibilities. He tried to think clearly. Was there ever a moment of romance between them? A sweet laugh at one of his jokes, a magical "accidental" touch, a dance... anything? Well, what about appearance? Had Shaggy ever taken special notice of Daphne's hair, her eyes, her fashion sense?

No. He couldn't think of anything, and thinking about her more did not make her seem any more attractive. As honest as he was trying to be, Shaggy couldn't seriously picture Daphne as anything other than a really good friend.

His relief at this liberation was short-lived; sure, it was good to know he wasn't crushing on the girl his friend was going to marry, but now he had the frustration of sorting out his jealousy all over again.

Somehow, what really seemed to be the case was that Fred and Shaggy had each wanted _something _for a very long time. Fred was well on his way toward his dream; all that stood in the way was a one-syllable word from Daphne and he would have it. Yet somehow, it felt like Shaggy had wanted something for just as long, and just as desperately, and he was nowhere near having it. But what _was _it?

Giving up, and no longer possessing an appetite, Shaggy slid his five uneaten sandwiches to Scooby (a very eager recipient), stood up, and wandered out of the room.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10:

"Daphne? Are... are you sure about this?" Freddie asked nervously.

"It's not like I want to, Fred. But he is my dad..." Daphne finished brushing her long, red hair and looked over at her boyfriend. "It's his grandchild. He should know..." She hoped she sounded more sure than she felt.

"Well... should I come with you?"

"Are you kidding? If this doesn't go over well... let's just say the Mystery Inc. population could fall back to five if you're within range of Daddy. Trust me, you're safer if you're not there when I break the news."

Fred smiled. "I think I'll be all right."

"Even so..."

"Look, how about I drive you over, okay? I don't have to go in..."

Daphne started to say something, then gave in. "Okay. Just... I might be awhile."

"As long as you're back before November 14, it won't matter too much."

Daphne said nothing; she only grinned and kissed him.

"Daphne! What a surprise! I haven't seen you since you moved to take that job at the CCC... is it paying well?"

"I'm... managing," Daphne answered politely, as her father led her into the parlor. She thought she heard her dad breathe a sigh of relief; maybe that was what he assumed she had come for.

Her father seemed a little older, somehow, than Daphne remembered; was he that skinny last time? And had his hair been quite so white... and thin? Come to think of it, had Mr. Blake had _any_ bald patches last time Daphne saw him?

These observations-- combined with the early-May sunlight streaming through the window-- made Daphne feel somewhat guilty for not stopping by a month-and-a-half ago, instead of waiting around.

"You look healthy, Daphne. If you don't mind my saying, you look fuller than when I last saw you... it has been a long time..."

Daphne shifted uncomfortably. She wasn't showing yet, and likely her father was only trying to compliment her, but she was fearful that if she had waited any longer he might have seen for himself...

"If I may offer you a beverage?" Ever since Daphne had turned 21, that offer pretty much always indicated there was some new wine Mr. Blake wanted his "sophisticated" young daughter to try.

"Um... I'll just have water, thanks," Daphne answered, declining the real offer her father was trying to make. He knew it, too.

"Are you sure? Because I have just received a selection of some delectable wines from--"

"I'm sure," Daphne told him quickly. Then she slowed down and tried to explain peacefully. "I can't drink alcohol."

Mr. Blake stared at her. Now Daphne had no choice but to tell him the whole story.

Trying to remain calm, yet flinching at the slightest movement from her father, Daphne explained that the reason why she couldn't drink was that she was pregnant; that yes, she was keeping the baby; that "that Freddie kid" was the father; and that she was about two-and-a-half months along. Every moment she was expecting an outburst from her father; every moment it did not come. He listened intently, frowning slightly, but never interrupting, somehow. Daphne felt her fear lift.

She finished. Her father remained silent, amazingly. Daphne almost wondered if he had fallen asleep with his eyes open. Then, at long last, he sat up straight and spoke.

"So, um... this 'Freddie'..." he started. Daphne braced herself. "Has he asked you to marry him?"

"Uh, no..." Daphne answered. Then, hoping this wouldn't make Fred look like some loser who dumped all his pregnant girlfriends, she added, "Not yet, anyway."

To her surprise, her father answered, "Good." He leaned back in his chair. "Because if and when he does, he had better ask me first."

The father and daughter looked at each other for a long time; Daphne wondered why he was taking this tremendously well. She broke the silence and asked, "So... um... you're not...mad, Daddy?"

Mr. Blake sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Daphne, I'm only glad you told me. The thing is, getting mad won't change the fact that you're a mother now, and I'm a grandparent. And I can either resist it or accept it, but I know that, scandalous as it might seem, eventually you will grow to love your child, if you haven't already. And I will love him or her as well."

Daphne stared at her dad, shocked and grateful at the same time.

"You're... you're sure about all that, Daddy?"

"Yes, Daphne. You're probably scared to death right now. But I can say with confidence that everything will turn out all right. After all, it did with you."


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11:

It took Daphne a minute to register what her father had just told her.

"You mean I was--?"

"Conceived outside marriage? Yes," Mr. Blake answered her. "And I can tell you, your mother and I were just as scared as you and Freddie probably are now, if not more. Granted, we were older... you've just barely left your teenage years, and I was nearly fifty. But that just made the whole thing more shameful, because your mother had only just turned thirty. I was almost your age before she was even born. You can imagine the suspicions, and accusations that floated around after it was revealed that your mother was pregnant and I was the father. Not only was there an age difference, our positions were entirely different. Here I was, CEO and earning millions of dollars annually, while meanwhile your mother was merely another secretary amongst hundreds. The truth is, I barely would have known her ordinarily, but we met in a restaurant one day and if we didn't work in the same building most people probably wouldn't have seen a problem with it."

"Is... is that why Mother quit?" Daphne asked, desperate to know.

"It is," her father responded truthfully. "Obviously with my salary we didn't need the money, but I was still worried constantly. Then I married her, and two months later you were born... and suddenly I didn't care about what the company thought. I had a wife, and I had a healthy daughter. I didn't need anything else."

Daphne's thoughts drifted to the future. Would things be this easy for her and Freddie? After all, neither of them was a CEO making millions a year, and Daphne couldn't just live off of her father's money forever. At least neither of them would have to quit work. Although the salary from the CCC was decent, one person probably could not support a family on it. If they both worked, though...

Daphne shook the thought. What was she thinking? She and Freddie weren't getting married... at least, they hadn't talked about it. And it wasn't a "family" they were starting... it was one kid. Daphne had always imagined her family with maybe five children, at least one of which was a girl who would play dress-up and want her hair braided and ask for pink school supplies. The rest could be boys or girls; it didn't really matter. All Daphne wanted was that one little girl... she would name her Janice...

_Daydreaming again. Cut that out._

"I... thank you, Daddy," Daphne told him. "I'll... try to be a good mother to your grandchild..."

A sad look crossed Mr. Blake's face. "Remember that, Daphne. I only hope..." He looked away.

"What do you hope, Daddy?"

Mr. Blake breathed. "Daphne, I can't lie to you. And if I told you that you telling me this last year or a couple months ago or even last week wouldn't have made me react any differently, then I would be lying. The truth is, I want grandchildren very badly. The truth is, I want to live to see them..."

Daphne looked up at his face, darkly.

"The truth is I have cancer."


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12:

"Daddy?" Daphne asked her father, alarmed.

"It's true," he told her. "It's a malignant tumor. They can slow its growth to let me live a little longer... but I will die eventually."

"Daddy, no!"

"It's all right, Daphne..." He tried to calm his daughter. He leaned over and stroked her hair. Stricken, Daphne leaned against her father, snuggled as she had done when she was a little girl.

"I'll still be around when the baby is born, Daphne. When did you say you were due?"

"November 14," she answered, although she hadn't said it before.

He held his daughter tighter. The truth was out in the open: Upon this meeting, each had dreaded to tell the other about his or her health. But now Daphne felt selfish that she had been worried. Her father's problem spelled death; her own problem meant birth.

"Daddy?" Daphne asked in a childish voice. "Don't go away." She said it like when she was a kid, and he was just going on travel. Sure, that had always meant interesting gifts when he got back, but having him leave for a week or two or three didn't make that worth it. She could only stand it because he did send her wonderful letters about the things he saw while he was away.

Now he was going away forever. And there would be no letters.

Mr. Blake only nodded and hugged her. That sat in silence, Daphne feeling sorrow for her father, Mr. Blake feeling hope for his daughter. Neither could feel their respective emotions for themselves, because they were feeling for each other.

Finally Mr. Blake opened his mouth. "I only wish..."

"Wish what?" Daphne asked.

"The next time you come over... may I meet Freddie? I haven't really seen him since you all left for college."

"Actually..." Daphne almost laughed at the irony. "You can meet him now. Wait just a moment..."

She ran onto the driveway, where the Mystery Machine was parked and Fred was reading a magazine in the front seat. He buckled his seat belt when he saw her, misunderstanding. She motioned for him to get out of the van.

"It's... okay?" Fred asked miraculously, as he walked up the steps with Daphne. They entered the parlor, where Mr. Blake stood with his hand out.

"Hello, Mr. Blake. Um..." Fred tried desperately to think of something to say but thought of nothing.

"Here, have a seat," Mr. Blake offered Freddie. "And would _you _like a glass of wine? Perhaps you could drink it for my daughter, here..."

"Uh, thanks, Mr. Blake." Fred was shaking a little. He accepted the glass Daphne's father produced moments later, then stifled a mild scream.

"Are you okay, Freddie?" Daphne asked him.

"It's nothing. I just cut my finger..."

"Oh, how thoughtless of me!" Mr. Blake exclaimed. "I knew one of the wine glasses had a chip in it, I meant to throw it away... I'm dreadfully sorry..."

"I'll get some antiseptic," Daphne volunteered, dashing from the room.

Freddie and Mr. Blake were alone.

_Here's your opportunity. Take it, _Fred told himself.

"Um, Mr. Blake? I was wondering if I could ask you something. Something important..."


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13:

Daphne opened the door. It was Freddie, right on time. Of course he was always on time, when Daphne needed ten more minutes...

"Ready to go?" he asked her enthusiastically.

_Aw, whatever..._ Daphne decided. _If I look ready to him, I must not look too bad..._

She looked down at her standard outfit, the purple dress. It was definitely tighter than it used to be, but it still fit reasonably well. Still, she often tried to really dress up the rest of her, to make up for it.

"I guess so," Daphne responded. She walked down to the van, holding Freddie's hand. He hadn't said where he was taking her. All he said was to expect an evening of surprises.

"Good," Freddie told her. "I always hoped you would be..."

Daphne searched for meaning in this cryptic response but found none. She gave up and simply watched the road for wherever Fred was taking her.

Three hours later, the couple stood in the park, watching the brook flow under the bridge as some small children waded in it. As it was still early June, the water was rather chilly, so occasionally a child would run shrieking back to his or her mother, who would wrap him or her in a towel and try to calm the kid down.

"Wow..." Daphne whispered to Fred. "It's a wonder those kids don't have hypothermia by now... if that were my kid I wouldn't let her in."

"Well, in a few years that _will _be your kid." Fred grinned.

Daphne smiled back. "I guess being a mother has turned me into a worrywart."

Fred laughed. "Just like we vowed we would never do to our kids." He gazed playfully at the water.

Daphne placed her hand on top of his. "Maybe the idea of having someone to look after 24/7 can put someone on the alert. Even when there's really no danger."

Fred looked back at her. "Well, it won't be 24/7. I'll give you some time off... I can take care of my own kid sometimes."

"Okay, 23/7..." Daphne amended. "That's as long as I trust you with him!"

"Hey! I haven't earned the title of 'Danger-Prone Daphne!' " Fred retorted, a mock expression of offense on his face.

"Now, now..." Daphne tried to put a similar expression on her own face. It didn't work. So she reached up and kissed him instead.

He kissed her back. When they were done, Daphne decided to play some more. "So 22/7... maybe Shaggy or Velma would babysit sometimes..."

Fred's expression turned more serious but still cheerful. "They've been great, haven't they?"

Daphne nodded. "Very supportive. Velma's always coming back from the library with more and more information..." A mischievous expression crossed Daphne's face. "Just don't tell her we ate at that seafood place; she'd about kill me... something about mercury levels..."

"Don't give me the technical details, Daphne, there's a reason I never dated her!"

"You were intimidated by someone who knew that Joan of Arc wasn't Noah's wife?" Daphne joked, referencing a blunder Fred had made in ninth-grade world history class.

"So what's that say about you?"

By now Daphne was laughing too hard to come up with a retort. Fred joined in, until they both realized that some strangers were staring.

Once the laughter had subsided, Fred cleared his throat and once again made his face serious. "No, actually the reason I never dated her was that I was always too in love with you."

"Oh, Freddie!"

"No, I mean... really. Even when we had broken up, I could never really forget you. The best summer of my life was the year we all went on that road trip in the Mystery Machine and solved mysteries all over the country... and you were always right there..." He smiled, reminiscing. "Ever since then, we've known when we were done with a mystery because the bad guy would mutter, 'And I would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for--' "

" '--you meddling kids!' " Daphne finished, as enchanted by the memory as Freddie.

Fred looked long into the water. "But I guess we really aren't kids anymore, are we? We went to college, we found actual jobs, we moved into our own houses--"

"--I got pregnant..." Daphne added.

"Yeah... a lot has changed since that summer. But there is one thing that hasn't changed, and there is one change I'd like to make..." He started pacing.

"A month ago, when we visited your father... there was something I asked him for, and he said yes..." Fred reached into his pocket. He pulled out... a square box.

"Daphne... will you marry me?"

The ring was beautiful. It slid perfectly onto Daphne's hand. Once it was there, she wondered how her hand ever looked natural without it.

"Yes, Freddie... I will."

She kissed her boyfriend... now her fiance... and felt the magic of the night. Had she noticed how many fireflies were in the park this evening, how bright the full moon shown overhead, how peacefully the wind moved through the trees...?

"Ew, they're kissing!"

Daphne and Fred looked over where a small child had shrieked. Now all the children, and their disapproving mothers, and just about everyone in the park it seemed, were staring at the couple.

"C'mon... let's go back to the van..." Freddie whispered, and Daphne agreed. As they made their way back to the parking lot, an elderly woman tapped Daphne on the shoulder and whispered,

"Congratulations... it's not every day an old lady like me gets to watch two young people who love each other... I wish you well..."

Then the woman was gone, almost instantly. But her words stayed with Daphne a long, long time.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14:

"Okay... now I guess about the first thing we want to decide on is a date. I guess it would be best before November, you know, so the baby will be... uh..."

"Legitimate?" Daphne finished for Freddie. Everyone was crowded around the table in Fred's kitchen, making plans for the wedding. "I guess that makes sense, but..."

"But what?"

"Well, I kind of hoped I wouldn't have to look fat on my wedding day..." she started, then shrugged. "Ah, well, at least if I'm still pregnant I'll have an excuse."

"How about a summer wedding? Say, in mid-August..." Fred suggested.

"August 12, I guess." Daphne decided.

"Is there anything special about that date?"

"Not really... just that it's a Saturday and everyone will be off work."

"Okay... August 12 it is."

Not a lot was coming from Shaggy, Scooby, and Velma's end of the table, but not because they weren't interested. Velma was busily flipping through bridal magazines, and Shaggy and Scooby were exploring culinary possibilities.

"Hey Daphne... maybe something like this?" Velma offered. Somehow she had found an entire book full of maternity gown options.

Daphne looked for a moment, then pondered, "I don't know... does there seem to be something hypocritical to you about a _white _maternity wedding dress?"

Velma, who had taken it for granted that the bride _would _wear white, suddenly understood what Daphne was saying.

"Well... we wouldn't have to get a white one... maybe pale lavender?"

"Sounds good," Daphne responded.

Now Shaggy spoke, trying to sound professional but only sounding unnatural. "Now, is there going to be a... a toast?" _Wow! He said a whole sentence without slipping a "like" in there somewhere. _"Because the champagne--"

"--will be nonexistent," Freddie responsibly finished. "It wouldn't be fair to Daphne if she couldn't drink at her own wedding while everyone else could. Besides that, Velma's underage."

"Oh... right." It was easy for the rest of the gang to forget that Velma was a couple years younger than they were. After all, she had skipped enough grades to be in their classes throughout school-- she could have skipped more if she had been willing to leave her friends. And she was probably the most mature out of all of them-- she was certainly the smartest. Still, being eighteen, champagne for her was illegal and out of the question.

"So... like how about sparkling apple cider?" Shaggy suggested instead.

"Much better," Fred approved.

This felt good. This was something the gang hadn't really done in a while-- really worked on something, anything, together. Sure, they were employed together, but it was different when you were getting paid. It was different when you had to do it.

So went the afternoon-- somehow, plans were arranged for a wedding that would take place in only two months. Even the honeymoon was more or less in order-- Freddie and Daphne would drive down to Florida and spend about a week there. With a much clearer idea in mind than they had had that morning, the friends started going their separate ways, until only Fred and Daphne remained.

Daphne started putting on her rain poncho-- there was a hint of a storm out there. "So," she asked Fred, "how do you feel about the wedding?"

"Great. Prepared."

"Yeah, I'm terrified too."

She kissed him and left.


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: **Short and sweet... but a quantum leap as far as Shaggy/Velma might be concerned. Read on!

Chapter 15:

Shaggy entered his apartment, feeling every bit of strangeness he had after Fred told him he wanted to marry Daphne. Having spent the day planning for the wedding seemed to have poured lemon juice into a nasty hangnail.

But still, he couldn't sort out his feelings. What was wrong with him? In some ways, his jealousy was a bit like watching someone else put the finishing touches on a school report he hadn't even started... but it still wasn't the same. Shaggy actually _wanted _whatever it was he was putting off.

Yet if this was procrastination, and he wanted the thing he wasn't working for, why didn't he just reach for it now? But how could he reach for something if he didn't know what it was?

Shaggy climbed into bed-- miraculously having forgotten to grab dinner-- and stared up at the ceiling. He relived the events of the day, how he had made every effort even though his heart wasn't in it... or was it?

_Something_ felt good about the day, in spite of everything. Something felt good about planning the wedding. But what? Maybe the fact that he was planning the menu... no. Oddly enough, he couldn't even remember what food had been selected. Zoinks. This was serious.

Maybe it was the laughter, just the good feeling of being with one's friends. The feeling of watching Fred and Daphne, so obviously in love with each other; the feeling of being included in something that mattered so much to someone; the feeling of listening to Velma so enthralled at her best friend's happiness...

Shaggy sat up suddenly. He knew what was wrong. No, he knew what was _right. _In everything he had just told himself, there was one thing, a single word that had just about summed everything up. He understood now.

_Velma._


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: **For those of you out there who aren't science geeks, let me explain. A tachyon is supposedly a particle that moves _backwards _in time instead of forwards. This isn't essential to get the story, just one corny joke. Also, I'll admit that I've wanted to play around with the possibility of life on Europa ever since fourth grade, when another kid's school project really prompted me into fantasizing about aliens in our own solar system. Sorry.

Chapter 16:

Four months. They had been on the job for _four months._

Mr. Mangetout had been right-- solving the mystery hadn't been a three-hour job. The Orb was clearly in every bit of danger it had been in when Mystery Inc. arrived.

Sure, they had solved a couple of other mysteries. They had terminated a series of prank calls to Europa, a moon of Jupiter which was apparently inhabited. They had busted a couple of losers from near Proxima Centauri who were clearly not authorized to be at the CCC and seemed to be on the run from their own planet's drug police. Once, Velma had even sorted out a horrible mistranslation that almost caused an innocent alien to be sentenced to exile on Charon. But that was the most any of them had done...

The mystery behind the Fizlayen Orb of Power continued to be as perplexing as the day Mystery Inc. arrived. Other than the occasional idle threat letter, nothing more was seen of the Veqs. Even so, every few workdays each member of Mystery Inc. was expected to be stationed guarding the orb, just in case. Usually, the schedule would pair them up with at least one other member, but occasionally they were left to stand guard with a mystery-solver from outside the gang. Today, however, Daphne and Freddie were positioned together, and as almost nobody ever came down to the basement where the Orb was stored, the term "security duty" had almost become code for "day off." They were telling jokes to pass the time, but by noonish they had already run out.

"Okay..." Daphne thought. "Here's one... what do tachyon procrastinators say constantly?"

"I dunno... what?" Fred asked, not altogether sure what a "tachyon" was.

" 'I'll do it yesterday!' " Daphne answered, then apologized. "Sorry... Velma told it to me this morning and I was hoping you would know what it meant..."

"Haven't a clue," Freddie answered simply.

"Drat..." Daphne said flirtingly.

They stood in silence a few minutes. This underground room was about as fun as math class and as adventurous as a Power Ranger movie. As much as they tried to flirt and joke around, the gloom had a way of swallowing any cheer you tried to bring into it.

"I'm hungry," Freddie said after about half an hour.

"What's for lunch?" Daphne asked. It was Freddie's turn to bring the food, after all.

"Italian takeout I picked up on the way over here. It's in that cooler..." Freddie then realized he had left the cooler on the other side of the room. "I'll be right back..."

"Okay, Freddie," Daphne answered, moving just a little closer to the Orb. She knew that "guarding it" just meant standing in the same room, but even so her paranoia made her want to move closer to make up for Fred moving farther away.

She started humming a bit-- it seemed to be an old song from the twenties, although Freddie wasn't quite familiar with the tune. Still, the lively jazz rhythm (as much as anybody can actually hum jazz-- Daphne did a phenomenal job) did help the depressing interior of the room considerably. Fred opened the cooler.

The humming stopped. Fred shrugged it off-- Daphne had probably just forgotten the rest of the tune, or maybe she had only been trying to remove an earworm and it worked. He pulled out a Styrofoam carton.

"Hey Daphne-- do you want Parmeson on your spaghetti?" he asked. No response. "Daphne?" Still nothing. "_Daphne?_"

He was worried now. He picked up his flashlight and ran over to where Daphne had been standing.

She was gone.

"Freddie!"

Relieved to hear his fiancee's voice, Freddie shone his light up to the rafter from which she was dangling. Her face was pale, her eyes unblinking.

"Freddie... I saw one. It was a... a..."

"A what?" Fred asked, helping her down.

"A Veq."

Freddie only stared at Daphne, speechless.

"Are... are you sure?"

"Yes... pretty sure."

"How? None of us knows what one looks like."

"That's exactly it... the Veqs are the only race we haven't seen, or at least been shown a picture of. There was absolutely nothing familiar about this one..."

"What did it look like?"

"About seven feet tall... wearing a black robe... its face was sort of bluish, with bright yellow eyes... it started moving toward the Orb, Freddie! Then it saw me, and before I could even pull out my taser it picked me up and threw me over the rafters! I was about to shoot it from up here before it got to the Orb... then it heard your voice and realized there must be more than one person down here. It... it disappeared right on the spot!" Daphne was still shaking.

"All right, all right... it's okay," Fred reassured her. "We'll have to report this incident, of course..." Suddenly he stopped and looked at Daphne. Her arm was bleeding. She had a large gash that extended from her elbow halfway down to her wrist.

"You're hurt..." he told her.

"It... it must have been from when he flung me over the rafters... there are some hooks and nails sticking out... I was so scared I didn't even notice."

"Danger-Prone Daphne," Fred told her, smiling. Suddenly, a horrible thought crossed his mind. "Daphne... the baby..."

"I'm pretty sure it's fine, Freddie," she told him. "I wasn't hurt all that badly. He wasn't trying to hurt me, just to get me out of the way. This cut looks like it hurts more than it actually does..." Freddie was relieved to hear that.

"Even so... we should send you to the infirmary..." Fred moved over to the PA system on the wall and pushed the button. "Send backup security to sublevel 28... there has been an injury... Miss Daphne Blake to the infirmary. Thank you." Fred prayed the backup would arrive quickly; it was dangerous to be in this basement alone with this Veq on the prowl, and the sooner Daphne left for the infirmary, the better...

The backup arrived momentarily, along with Mr. Mangetout, asking for an explanation of what happened. As soon as Fred finished delivering it, Mr. Mangetout dismissed him to go.

"You're riled up enough for one afternoon; take the rest of the day off, Mr. Jones. Just because you weren't hurt doesn't mean this isn't stressful for you too..."

"Thank you, Mr. Mangetout."

"All I can do is express my relief that you stopped the Veq from getting the Orb. And at least now we know what they look like, so we can keep an eye on any future appearances."

"Yes sir," Fred told him, leaving the room, for the first time since taking the job, terrified.

Daphne was already standing outside the infirmary by the time Fred got up there. She was wearing a large white bandage around her left arm, but other than that she looked fine. Seeing Fred's worried expression, she calmed him down.

"The baby is okay. They checked me out with this high-tech machine... I'm pretty sure it wasn't built on Earth! And while they were testing the baby's health, they also let me know that it's a girl."

"A girl," Fred repeated.

"At least, they're pretty sure... they admitted it has been wrong before..."

"So watch. If we paint the room pink they'll be wrong; if we go with a standard, boring yellow room they'll be right."

"Basically." Daphne held his hand, already feeling much better than she had right after that little shake-up. They walked out to the parking lot.

"Just don't let me forget to come back later this afternoon to pick up the others," Freddie told Daphne as they climbed into the van.

"The downside of carpooling..." she answered. "Do you think they will tell Shaggy, Scooby, and Velma what happened?"

"I doubt it," Freddie answered. "They probably don't want word of this getting out; it might panic some people." _It sure panicked me, _he thought.

"Yeah... it was pretty scary..." Daphne said, as though she could read his mind.

Fred put his arm around her, then sighed. "Daphne... is this really a good idea?"

"Is what a good idea?"

"To be working here. I mean while you're pregnant. I didn't really think about it much before today... but next time, if the injury is worse, you might..."

"Lose the baby?" Daphne finished. "Freddie, I know you're concerned, and I appreciate that, but this was a freak accident. A one-time thing. And if this was the worst, and the baby is okay, then I don't think we have anything to worry about."

"I know. It's just..."

"It's just what?"

"It's just that... well... lately I've been getting everything I ever wanted in life. First a diploma, then a job... even though we didn't plan it right away, I did always want kids... and then with us getting married in a couple months everything is perfect. Too perfect. As if everything is going well only to be snatched away just as I'm getting situated. I'm... I'm worried about something happening to the baby, and I'm worried about something happening to you."

Daphne smiled sympathetically. "Freddie... I understand. Sometimes I worry about something happening to you, too. But we've been taking risks for years, and somehow we always survive to risk our necks another day. I think if we all just got ordinary desk jobs with no risk whatsoever we'd die of boredom."

"You think so?"

"I know so." Daphne was sure she had heard that line in a movie somewhere, but she didn't care that it was cliche. "I just hope our daughter doesn't wind up just like us. If she does I am going to be one overprotective mother..."


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17:

He had to be mistaken.

No, he couldn't be.

Shaggy paced through the living room, wondering vaguely if he might wear a hole in the floor. Then the neighbors downstairs would be very mad. Then he would be evicted...

He was trying to distract himself with implausable scenarios. He knew he was. It wasn't working, though, and besides, he _needed _to focus.

Was he really in love with Velma?

If so, how long?

He paced faster, to match his heartbeat. He tried to imagine the same questions he had asked himself when he was wondering about Daphne, about her appearance, her personality, her laugh... only to find that this time it was a completely different game altogether. He didn't have to ask any questions; all he had to do was to think about Velma and everything else would come on its own...

Shaggy sat down. After pacing for hours, he was suddenly aware of how exhausted he had become. Something felt good about this feeling, about thinking about Velma this way. It wasn't that it was new and exciting; it was that it was old and familiar...

It was as though something Shaggy had known for years had finally come to light. How long had he suppressed these feelings? And why had he? A likely reason was that he was scared... but of what?

Shaggy thought back to their first meeting: fifth grade. One morning, a very small girl with brunette hair and glasses had waltzed into the room. It was Velma, age seven, but her small size had made Shaggy assume she was even younger. Maybe one of the kindergarten kids had been sent to deliver a note...

It was then that the teacher announced, "Class... today we have a new student." It turned out that Velma was being moved up from fourth grade to fifth grade, even though she had skipped two grades already.

And of course, she sat right next to Shaggy.

She had been much more shy back then-- it was clear she didn't really have any friends. Not yet, anyway. But then when Shaggy joined Fred and Daphne at the lunch table, he saw that Daphne had invited Velma to sit with them. Slowly she began to open up, and by the end of the school year she was as talkative as the rest of them. Shaggy had particularly admired the way her vocabulary always allowed her to say exactly what she wanted; he wished he could do that. Those were the days...

Was it possible that even as a ten-year-old boy, Shaggy had known Velma was special? Maybe that was why he had never been open with this, even to himself: There was that fear of discovery. At age ten, every girl has cooties. It is an established rule. The fact that Shaggy even talked to her was taking a risk most of his male classmates wouldn't dare take, especially with a nerd like Velma.

But then, had Shaggy really liked her back then? Or was it just friendship? Maybe it wasn't until high school that he really started feeling this way about her. Maybe what had stood in the way was her age-- it just felt wrong, somehow, for a fifteen-year-old boy to like a twelve-year-old girl.

Or could it have even been as recently as college? "Absence makes the heart grow fonder." But then, to grow fonder, wouldn't the heart have to be fond in the first place?

This was ridiculous. Shaggy knew, deep down, that he could have had Velma a long time ago-- just like Fred had had Daphne more or less since high school. But he didn't. How many years had he wasted, anyway? Would he ever really know?

What was it, exactly, that gave Fred what he wanted and left Shaggy denying that he even wanted it?

He knew. It was Fred's initiative. After all, for years Freddie had really been the leader of the gang. The Eagle Scout. The one who set up all the traps. The one who had really introduced the possibility of solving mysteries in the first place. Of course, it would be just like him to come out and admit he liked Daphne the moment he realized it.

Fred had always solved mysteries by leadership and courage. Shaggy had always solved mysteries by mere, dumb luck. That had worked fine... until now.

You couldn't use dumb luck to reach a smart girl...


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18:

"Okay, Freddie, I'm ready... so where are we going?"

"I told you... it's a surprise."

"Oh, c'mon!" Daphne teased him. The truth was she loved being surprised, and Fred knew it. "Just a hint!"

"Nope... I promised you a surprise, and if I told you I'd be breaking my promise," Fred said with a feigned chivalry.

"Okay... it's not Disneyworld, is it?"

"Do you wish it were?"

"No!"

"Well, there's your answer. Come on," Fred indicated, and they drove off.

Daphne assumed he would turn right at that one intersection-- that was where all the malls, restaurants, parks, and theaters were. Instead he turned left-- straight into nothing more than residential district. _Maybe there's someone he wants me to meet, _Daphne wondered. _Or, there are some hiking trails behind all those houses... nah, if we were going to do that he would have warned me to change out of this dress..._

"We're here," Fred told her all of a sudden.

The van had stopped right in front of a very beautiful, two-story, white Victorian house. Fred climbed out of the driver's seat. Daphne followed.

He walked up the steps and went straight through the door without knocking. He laughed when Daphne stared at him inquisitively.

"We don't need to knock. Not at this house..." he told her.

"Why not?" she asked him.

"Because it's ours."

Daphne gasped. This was _their _house? All of a sudden she loved it deeply. The whole thing was theirs, the whole thing, from the front steps to the kitchen they had just entered (painted yellow, just like she had imagined in her dream house when she was a little girl).

"Do you like it?" Freddie asked earnestly.

Daphne answered very sincerely. "I love it."

"Better than Disneyworld?"

"Completely."

"Good. Would you like to see the rest of it?"

"You bet!"

He led her down the hall to a dining room with a large sliding-glass door and white furniture-- it could have doubled as a sunroom. He then showed her a small library, where the house's previous owners had left their bookcases and even a few of their books. He showed her a cozy living room with a large brick fireplace, and an empty room that could be used as a toy room.

"And," Freddie told her excitedly, "you haven't even seen the upstairs yet! There's something up there I really wanted to show you!"

There were a total of five bedrooms upstairs, but rather than systematically going through each one, Freddie sped down the hall toward a door with a large sign on the door: **Baby's Room.**

Daphne wasn't sure whether Fred had trusted the aliens and painted the room pink, or played it safe and painted it yellow, but she eagerly followed him in, curiously.

It was neither pink nor yellow. It wasn't blue, either. Yet it was entirely baby-friendly. The walls had all been painted sea-green, and they were adorned with whimsical posters of tropical fish, coral, algae, and even a mermaid and a shipwreck. A stuffed octopus sat ready and waiting in the crib. A small bookshelf opposite the bed had just one book perched on top, a book about pirates. The bookshelf, dresser, and crib were all white with a wavy aqua design printed on them. A mobile of shells hung just above the crib.

"It's impressive... it's perfect!" Daphne exclaimed.

"It beats the cliche yellow duckies," Fred answered with a shrug.

They both stood there a long time, just smiling, hugging, and feeling good. Just then, though, an odd, sad sensation filled Daphne, and she had to let go for just a minute.

"What... what's wrong?" Freddie asked, worried.

"Nothing... it's just that... it's all coming true..."

"What is?"

"Well... When I visited Daddy a few months ago, I was scared to death that he'd be mad. But not only wasn't he mad, he wished me well... he said things would be okay... and he was right... except for one thing, and that's him."

Fred nodded. Daphne had confided these feelings to him before; he only wished there were something he could do for her. He knew Daphne had sort of drifted from her father throughout college, especially as Mr. Blake grew stricter about his daughter's whereabouts whenever she was home. Maybe he had felt the need to be overprotective while she was around to make up for whenever she was miles away, in some sorority he knew little about, doing who knows what.

Yet the last few months had shifted the tide. Daphne was visiting her father at least once a week, and calling him every night. It was like there was this dormant closeness between a father and a daughter that had only had the guts to come out when there was hardly any time left to enjoy it.

Was that how it always was with parents and children? Freddie considered his own family. It had been two weeks since he'd written. Granted, he had tried to call four days ago, but the line was busy and he'd never really tried again.

Freddie held Daphne as she cried tears of sorrow from one eye, tears of joy from the other. He held her close, already making resolutions for his own daughter inside...


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19:

Daphne's room had never been particularly messy. Today, though, as she rummaged through her closet wildly, and as Velma sat on her bed, sorting everything into piles according to Daphne's dictation, the room's floor seemed to hold more random paraphernalia than the closet initially looked as though it could hold. Somewhere in the pile of random belongings sat Daphne's suitcase, supposedly to start packing for the honeymoon, but other than the swimsuit and spare toothbrush (which she had never unpacked from her last vacation), absolutely nothing had been placed inside.

Seeing as the wedding was just a week away, Daphne was a nervous wreck. Still, she at least was in a cheerful mood, mainly because Velma had restrained her early-bird tendencies and instead suggested packing later in the afternoon.

"Something old, something old... Aaaaah!"

"How about this?" Velma suggested, holding up a necklace Daphne had thrown out moments earlier. "Didn't you wear this to our middle-school 'graduation'?"

Daphne looked at the necklace, a simple strand of pearls. Come to think of it, she was right. Where had that been all these years?

"Okay, one out of four... something old... something new... ouch, I don't really have anything new, unless you count my dress, and everyone's dress is, for the most part." _Jeepers, _Daphne realized to herself. _What's wrong with me? I haven't been _shopping _lately! _"I guess we can go to the mall later..."

"Sounds fun," Velma responded. "For something borrowed, I've got a hairclip that I think can kill two birds with one stone, since it happens to be blue."

"Thanks."

"Now we can move on to actually packing." Velma stood up from her perch and walked over to Daphne's closet. All Daphne's maternity clothes were at the very front; everything else, including her favorite purple dress, had been pushed to the back. Now almost six months along, Daphne didn't fit into most of her older outfits anymore.

Velma watched Daphne gently run her hands over some of her fashionable, outgrown clothing, remembering. She thought she heard a sigh.

Suddenly, Daphne pulled four or five dresses down from the back of the closet and tossed them to Velma. "Here," she told her. "You can have them." Velma stared at her. "They might not fit you perfectly, but they'll sure fit you better than they fit me anymore."

"I... well... thanks," Velma stuttered. "If you're--"

"I'm sure," Daphne said with a smile. "Face it, this baby is going to kill my figure. Unless either A-- I could get it back by some miracle, or B-- you were planning on having a kid anytime soon, there's really no point in me keeping any of it."

"I see," Velma answered. "Thank you." She left momentarily to hang them up in her own closet, then returned. She helped Daphne pack her suitcase, which went rather fast once they just buckled down and started putting things inside.

"Great," Daphne breathed, relieved to have gotten that out of the way. A thought crossed her mind. "I might be drafting you to help after I get back and move into Fred's house. Have fun with this place until the end of the month." They had paid their rent up until August 31st, after which Velma would be moving into an apartment. Fortunately, her salvation of the mistranslated document had earned her a raise and she was now much more ahead on her student loans; thus, she could afford to live on her own.

"Oh, I will," Velma told Daphne, a jokingly mischievous expression on her face. Laughing, the two friends left for the promised shopping trip, neither even caring that the room was left in disarray.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20:

Here it was. The Big Day.

Daphne was ready; after rehearsals, the whole process was instinctive. Even so, she was just a tad nervous that having a huge crowd of nearly two hundred would somehow make everything different. She also felt just a tad guilty that most of the guests were hers, but it wasn't like Freddie couldn't have invited more people if he wanted to... his family simply wasn't very close-knit. Not that Daphne's was a whole lot closer, but they knew a lot of people, mainly her father's business associates and golf buddies. And it was mostly her father paying for the wedding, so they didn't dare argue.

_Besides, _Daphne thought to herself, the single rain cloud that could possibly appear on a day like today, _he really wants this day to be special, to share it with everyone he knows. It's one of the last happy occasions he might ever have._

Daphne shook the thought. She couldn't let that ruin her day. She was a bride, starting her future as a married woman _today. _Nothing could stop that. Nothing...

The church was very beautiful as Daphne walked down the aisle. She wondered why she was so surprised; she had picked the colors and flowers, after all. Yet somehow the vast bouquets of lilies and violet ribbons enchanted her all the same.

She made her way to the alter. She had never been prone to being self-conscious, but it did feel awkward somehow to have almost four hundred eyes following her. She had attended many weddings in her day, but never one where the bride was pregnant-- at least, not visibly. And here she was, walking down the aisle in a light purple maternity dress...

The preacher spoke, but Daphne was really only listening to every third word. She already knew that Freddie would be hers, in sickness and in health... he had proven that already. Really, they had both proven that they loved each other, a long time ago... when, though, exactly? Or was it possible that all these years, the love had been there even when they weren't? That the real reason Daphne had broken up with all her other boyfriends was that she knew from square one they weren't right for her, that somebody else already loved her, that she loved him back?

It seemed to take forever, but finally the preacher asked, "Do you, Frederick Jones, take Daphne Blake as your lawfully wedded wife?"

"I do."

"And do you, Daphne Blake, take Frederick Jones as your lawfully wedded husband?"

_Definitely! _Daphne thought to herself. Then, smiling, she went with the traditional response.

"I do."

"Then I pronounce you man and wife. You may kiss the bride."

_It's not fair, _Daphne thought amusedly during the reception.

She was being swarmed. Everyone seemed to want pictures of the bride, to tell her how beautiful she was, to inquire about the honeymoon.

Freddie, meanwhile, was helping himself to seconds on the food. Sure, he was mingling with the guests, and had maybe four or five of his college friends bunched up around him, but he was far from being suffocated. Why did everyone care only about the bride?

Then, out of the corner of her eye, Daphne looked across the room and saw Mr. Blake sitting at the back. He had gotten much worse since that fateful meeting months ago. His hair had completely fallen out by now and was replaced by a toupee. It looked like perfectly natural hair at first glance, but after growing used to the bare patches Daphne took this only as a sign that things were really getting worse. And they were. Mr. Blake's cancer was incurable; things certainly couldn't be getting better.

_Will he really live long enough to meet his granddaughter? _Daphne wondered to herself. She longed and yearned more than anything to break away, to leave this crowd exactly where it was and be only with her father and with Fred. She wished there were some distraction...

There was.

The details were very difficult to describe, since Daphne was facing away from the diversion when it hit. She turned around briefly only when she heard a metallic _clang! _and witnessed Shaggy standing there, dripping with some sort of soup. The crowd gasped as Daphne ducked away from them; then they began laughing uncontrollably. Someone was in the midst of cleaning it up when Daphne slid into the seat next to Mr. Blake, having motioned for Freddie to come with her.

Mr. Blake smiled at his daughter. Somehow, in spite of his weakness, he gave her the strongest smile he ever had.

It was almost time to leave. Daphne had just tossed the bouquet, turning around traditionally but making mental note as to where Velma had been standing. She was her best friend; she deserved something good. Now if only Freddie could make sure some attractive guy Velma deserved caught the garter...

Actually, Shaggy caught it, still red, partly from embarrassment and partly from soup stains. Ah, well.

Walking out to their waiting limosine, Daphne and Fred felt the gentle gliding bubbles from their guests caressing their skin. This was better than the best day of their lives.

Today was the day that would give rise to even better days to come.


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21:

It was kind of a long drive. Perfect.

Daphne snuggled up next to Freddie in the backseat of the limo. It had happened. It had really happened.

For so long, the wedding had been a far-off fantasy. It started off as something the kids in the schoolyard dreamed up when they wanted to taunt Freddie or Daphne. Then it was a dim possibility that hovered over virtually every date in high school: Could this be the one? By the time they made up after their last breakup ever, no one could deny that it was a distinctly likely potential outcome.

But now it had _happened._

One might have expressed more conversation from two newlyweds, as the chauffeur noted with some confusion. Yet the truth was that Freddie and Daphne were communicating through that mysterious link that forms between people who love each other, that link between the eyes that sends an unadorned message of nothing other than pure, hopeful love.

Even so, they had to talk _eventually._

They kept their voices low; Daphne knew the chauffeur in question and found it quite likely he was going deaf anyway; still, there was an odd sense of privacy violation that made the couple wish they had just driven the Mystery Machine down to Florida, but of course they would have been the only ones who thought it proper to do so. Everyone seemed very surprised that Daphne, coming from her wealthy background, wasn't more of a bridezilla. Figures.

"Excited?" Fred almost whispered.

"Yeah..." Daphne responded, smiling. "You know, this might be the only trip we ever take alone together. At least, until this kid's in college..."

"Well, we can take lots of family vacations together," Fred offered, daydreaming. Then he added, "We could take the kids to Disneyworld..."

"Kid**_s_**?" Daphne asked him mischievously. "So you think we'll have more than one?"

"Sure... at least, assuming Janice turns out all right..." Freddie had agreed to Janice as a name, on the condition that, on the off-chance it was a boy, they could name him Daniel instead. "I mean, what if we're bad parents or something?" he added, half satirical-worried, half real-worried.

"I think as long as you change a few diapers, feed her, make sure she doesn't do drugs, and give all her boyfriends something to be scared of, Janice will be okay." Daphne looked over at Freddie, the boyfriend who had many a warning "be _sure _and get her home by nine-thirty." Fred smiled back.

Suddenly, Fred's memories came back in a rush, all of the memories. From first meeting Mr. Blake; to avoiding his mild frustration at the idea of Fred dating his daughter; to facing him after Daphne told him that Fred had fathered her child; to watching his frail, weakened form merrily watching his little girl get married... everything seemed to blur together in a vague spectrum of indifferent, adventurous, scary, sad, and wonderful memories. This was his father too, now...

Daphne looked at Freddie, tears in her eyes. She was clearly thinking the exact same things, and almost certainly to a greater extent. Somehow, it was becoming harder and harder to think about parenthood without realizing what was happening to Daphne's own father. Fred wished to comfort his wife (using that term felt _amazing_), but what could he say? That modern medicine was really good, that maybe Mr. Blake would be lucky?

No, there was no lying to his _wife_. Besides, they both knew that the whole hopefully-he'll-make-it phase had somehow been over before Daphne even knew about her father's illness. He was going. If only he could hang in there just a while longer, just long enough to meet his granddaughter.

Freddie wished for exactly that. He wanted it for Daphne. Somehow, everything would somehow be better if only she could be granted that much.

The slightly-crying Daphne was leaning across her husband's lap. She could have been asleep (as she was apt to do when she was leaning on him) or simply lost in the deepest thought. Freddie didn't know which; that wasn't so important now. What was important was letting her know that crying was okay, that she could be happy and sad on the very same day, even if that day were her wedding day. He stroked her hair gently, letting her confide in him without using any language other than love.

After hours and hours, the limo stopped in front of the hotel. At this point both were asleep; the chauffeur had to come around and wake them up. They climbed up to their room, 128, and despite the oddest of grief-hope pairings they spent a very magical night...


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22:

Work did get kinda lonely without Freddie and Daphne around...

Perfect.

Shaggy couldn't help but feel amazingly giddy at the realization that he and Velma were alone together... well, except for Scooby. But he could keep a secret... right? Maybe?

Aaaugh. This wasn't really any better. This opportunity Shaggy had been waiting for, had been putting off telling Velma for, didn't make this confession any easier to put into words. Maybe poetry?

Shaggy tried to think of some. _Your brunette hair of chocolate tone... your sweater of bright orange... I wish to talk to you alone... standing by the doorhinge?_

Shaggy wanted to puke.

"Hey Shaggy!" Velma called from across the lab. "Can you bring the bottle of 3 M hydrobromic acid over here?" They were using some weird test kit to determine whether random samplings of evidence (i.e., hair, dandruff, mucus) might indicate the presence of an alien of a species which was not authorized to be at the CCC. Shaggy had no idea how any of the tests worked; he simply acted as Velma's gofer, along with Scooby. He picked up a bottle and carried it over.

"Shaggy, I meant the bottle with the 3 _moles per liter _solution... not the bottle with 3 _milligrams _of solution!" Velma was getting annoyed.

"Oh... right, right..."

"And where are your goggles?"

"Right--" He reached up to his face, then realized their absence and felt around his neck. "--here," he finished sheepishly.

"Uh-huh..." Velma stared him seriously in the face. "Look, just get started on your lunch break, why don't you? I'll be done in a minute. But no food in the lab!" she lectured, as Shaggy almost opened his lunch box.

Shaggy stepped out of the room, into a small lounge across the hall. Maybe in the few minutes it took Velma to finish up, he could think of the perfect line, some sort of magical spell to explain everything...

Velma walked in, just then. She sat down on the couch opposite Shaggy and ripped open her lunch bag, pulling out a single sandwich, a can of soda, two cookies, and a banana. Virtually the same lunch she had packed on the day he met her...

"So... you're done? In the lab, I mean?" Shaggy knew that was a pathetic way to start a conversation... everything was pathetic... _he _was pathetic...

"Yes Shaggy, I'm _done_... thanks to you, there's nothing left to test!"

"Me? What did I do?"

"You spilled the dish of samples, nimrod, remember?" Oh great. Maybe Velma was just cranky because of low blood sugar... or maybe she was loathing every minute she was stuck working with Shaggy. There was no way she could possibly love him... or even like him... could she even stand him? What if she _hated _him? What if the only reason she had ever put up with him was because of Daphne and Freddie?

"Oh... whoops..." Shaggy could not say anything more as Velma attacked her sandwich, working her frustrations into the meat and cheese in its center. She swallowed and started again.

"Come on, Shaggy, think! When we have work to do in the lab, you act like it's just another place to clown around, you know that? You spill things, you break things, you don't follow the dress code... honestly, the only reason you're still alive is dumb luck!" There it was again. Shaggy had no looks, no brains, no talent... just a whole lot of luck. That was all.

"And another thing... I don't think you really care about this job at all!" she said, flinging her sandwich aside in frustration. Great. She was _mad _now. "You never want to reach out and investigate the entire building, like we're supposed to. You always cower behind either a random object... or me. Is that all I am here, a shield?"

Hey, she was _cute _when she was mad...

"You're afraid. You're a klutz, and you're afraid. You've always been afraid, and I bet you always will be. How come you never want to take chances like the rest of us?"

Take chances...

Of course!

"Seriously, if just once you would venture out and try something that scares you, I'd be thrilled!"

Shaggy kissed her.

It wasn't a bad kiss, either. It was right on the lips, where Shaggy caught a taste of Velma's sandwich... salami and sharp cheddar on pumpernickel, with chipotle sauce... mmm...

Suddenly, his inhibitions washed back over him like a wave. What had he just done? Why had he just done it? If there were any chance of even keeping Velma as a friend the rest of his life, he had just blown it, for sure... Now she would surely give him a slap across the face. He ducked.

There it was, right on his shoulder... Velma coming in to slap him... there it was, her hand...

But wait a moment. Her hand came down gently, smoothly. It stayed right where it was, only now it was pulling on his upper arm. She drew him up to his full height and looked him in the eye.

She kissed him back.

Neither of them finished their lunch; they spent the allotted lunch hour standing there, kissing, years of hope, fear, and frustration washing into that one moment...

Finally Velma spoke.

"Shaggy?"

"Yes?"

"I'm thrilled."


	23. Chapter 23

**A/N (I meant to write this in the last one): **Let's just say that as I wrote chapter 22, I was really reminded somehow of chemistry class last year. I might have slipped in a subconscious reference to one of my many frustrations with my ex-lab partner, where there was no happy ending, as I found out at the end of the year he was cheating off my tests. Okay, there was a funny ending, if not a happy one: the test in question was my absolute worst all year. Then again, that may have been a better grade than he was used to getting...

Chapter 23:

Shaggy had spent the entire four hours since he and Velma had kissed good-bye after work pacing. A million things had filled his head; he wondered what must be filling a brain as complex as Velma's.

Someone knocked at the door.

Shaggy ran to get it. It had to be either Velma or the pizza guy. For the first time in his life Shaggy hoped it was the former (in fact, he had forgotten that in his absent-mindedness over the day's events he hadn't ordered any pizza). He answered the door.

Best of both worlds! Velma was standing there, holding a stack of triple-X-large supreme pizzas.

She really cared about him...

Shaggy invited her in, offering her a seat at his kitchen table. She set the pizzas down, kissed him, and took a chair across from where Shaggy was already opening a box and hungrily gazing at the array of peppers and onions and sausage and olives and mushrooms and ham and pineapple and anchovies...

Velma smiled at him, remembering what her grandmother had told her years ago when they were making thanksgiving dinner together: The way to a man's heart is through his stomach. Grandma had been somewhat misleading: With Shaggy you didn't even need to know how to cook.

"So Velma... you think Fred and Daphne will be surprised when they get back? I mean, like, I caught the garter at the wedding, and you caught the bouquet... maybe it was like a... like a..."

"A sign?" Velma gingerly reached for the smallest slice of pizza in the box and started picking off half the toppings. What was the point of anchovies, anyway? Food had, up until today, been Shaggy's only brave point...

"Like maybe..." Shaggy suggested.

Velma shrugged. A thought had just occurred to her, one she didn't really like but that made a lot of sense. She leaned in seriously.

"Shaggy... maybe we shouldn't tell them... at least not just yet..."

Shaggy stared at her, wide-eyed, his cheeks loaded.

Velma continued. "I mean... sometimes I just wonder if we might be drifting apart. I'm happy for Freddie and Daphne, I really am... usually I'm even ecstatic. But occasionally I feel like the closer they get to each other, the farther they get from us. If we were together... do you think we might wind up doing the same thing to them?"

Shaggy thought for a moment. Velma had a really good point. Yet it bothered him that now, just when everything was out in the open and he could finally talk to Velma about everything he felt, he would have to keep it a secret from his best friends.

"But if we're going to be together..." Shaggy pondered. "Will it make any difference whether or not Fred and Daphne know about it?"

Velma looked down, pretending to be very interested in removing every last mushroom from her pizza. Finally she spoke. "I don't know... I mean, I would feel awful if we didn't tell them about this. They told us right away that they were going to have a baby, and get married. They didn't keep any secrets from us. But if we just ended this right now and pretended everything that happened in the last 24 hours never happened, I would still be keeping a secret... from you, Shaggy! I really care about you, and if I acted like I didn't I would be lying!"

Hearing Velma's words felt like receiving a cold cup of water after running for miles. Shaggy had to say something, something quick...

"Are... are you sure this would really push them away, Velma?" he asked her. "Did Freddie and Daphne really push us away, or did they push us together?"

Velma contemplated his words. She had never known him to be at all intelligent or romantic. Yet here it was like the cowardly, outer Shaggy was finally letting the real Shaggy speak up. He had a point: Would they still have wound up together if Freddie and Daphne hadn't demonstrated their own courage first?

The next thing she knew, they were kissing again. Shaggy was whispering softly to Velma.

"We don't really need to tell them right away. They told us things that they felt they needed us to know. We can let them know we're together... whenever it is that we need them to know."

"You're... you're right," Velma whispered back.

That was the end of that discussion. But it was a long time before Velma went home.


	24. Chapter 24

**A/N: **This chapter is very short and all I did was break the fourth wall. It doesn't really matter to the story; you can throw it out if you want.

Chapter 24:

"Disneyworld? You're kidding, right?" Daphne teased her husband.

"Well, why not? That's where you wanted to go when I showed you the house."

"You misunderstood. I was trying to rule out the worst-case scenario."

"Aw... you don't even want to go for me?" Freddie gave her his cutest face, the one that looked like a sad puppy. He did a very good job of it. Of course, he had picked up quite a few pointers from Scooby and Scrappy one day when the three of them were bored.

"All right, I'll cave," Daphne giggled. "Just no Space Mountain."

"Why not?"

"They have those signs that say I can't ride it, the do-not-ride-if-pregnant-type signs."

"Oh. Okay."

"And no Mickey Mouse ears."

"Why not?"

"Because," Daphne told him, "we have to be loyal to our _own _cartoon animal."


	25. Chapter 25

**A/N: **I've finally caught up with putting all the stuff I have up there already; now I'll just post them as I write them, okay?

Chapter 25:

Velma did a pretty good job of acting professionally, Shaggy had to admit to himself. As the week wore on, whether it was security duty, lab work, sweeping the halls for evidence, or just sitting in on ordinary meetings, Velma could stay alert and focused no matter how boring the subject at hand might be. One might have jumped to the conclusion that Velma simply never found anything to be less than fascinating, but after work every night Velma would confide in Shaggy which parts of the day she honestly wanted to sleep during. After work was when Velma magically forgot all about looking, acting, and talking "professionally." After work was fun.

Still, during the workday was torture. Shaggy tried to emulate Velma's professional manner by addressing her as "Miss Dinkley" in front of coworkers, as she always called him "Mr. Rogers." That always felt awkward. Velma had been Velma since fifth grade. Was this last-name stuff overdoing it?

At least she still called him Shaggy when nobody else was around. At least she still kissed him when nobody else was around.

Shaggy often got unprofessionally lost in his thoughts about Velma. Nobody besides Velma noticed; Shaggy was always absent-minded, and all the other employees had long ago learned to chalk it all up to something food-related.

"Shaggy? _Shaggy?_" Velma waved her hand in front of his face.

"Huh-- wah?" Shaggy snapped back to alertness.

Velma suppressed a laugh. "We were supposed to be at that meeting at two-thirty, remember? The one about whether or not to spring for new security detectors?"

"Oh... right..." Shaggy followed Velma up one of the CCC's numerous staircases. He still didn't know his way around the place and without one of the others accompanying him, he was completely lost.

He was following about four steps behind Velma, with Scooby right at his heels. He felt a tap on his shoulder. "Yeah, Scoob?"

"Rasn't me," the Great Dane answered.

"Then who--?"

He quickly received the answer to his question. Something grabbed him by his shirt. The thing's other hand took hold of Scooby's collar. It seemed to pull them from somewhere into nowhere.

"Shaggy!" Velma called, turning around.

Nothing but a ghostly absence answered her...

---------------------------------------

"You're mistaken, sir," Shaggy answered the yellow-eyed creature as it interrogated him. "See, like, it's not the Fizlayen Orb of Power. It's the... uh... Fizlayen Orb of _Sour. _It's like this giant citrus fruit--"

The Veq groaned. He should have snatched the girl in the orange sweater who looked like she knew what she was doing. He had thought it would be easier to scare these two into revealing everything, but obviously they overestimated their lying ability and assumed they could get away with not telling him what they knew.

"Whatever! Just let me know where the Orb is!" Clearly, he had somehow figured out that after Daphne's encounter, the orb had been relocated. Also clearly, nobody had told him that it was now hidden on sublevel twenty-nine, accessible only by stairs. "Or the both of you are going to pay!"

"Four bits?"

"No!" He walked over to a strange apparatus that looked a little like a dentist's chair, except it had straps with locks on them. "If I have to," he explained, "I will strap you both into this chair. I will leave you there until you tell me what I want to know. Every now and then, a single drop will land on your foreheads."

"Like the Chinese water torture?"

"Like the Chinese barbecue sauce torture."

_No!_

"We'll tell, we'll tell!" Shaggy begged.

"Good, good."

Shaggy had no idea where he was going in this maze of hallways and corridors he had never bothered to memorize. He simply picked a small, random door that probably didn't lead anywhere important. "It's in here," he told the Veq.

"Reah. Right in rere," Scooby backed him up.

The Veq had a feeling they were trying to ditch him, but if they were telling the truth he didn't dare simply not check. So he tied them to a nearby pole before walking in.

He started falling.

----------------------------------------

"Shaggy?" Velma called, hearing the word echoing back to her in a lonely, frightening manner.

Yet there was something about the echo. Velma stood over the spot from which Shaggy and Scooby had disappeared and called again.

There was a certain metallic reverberation to that sound. It was coming from overhead.

Ventillation ducts. Of course... that was how people always moved around mysteriously through buildings in the movies. Velma stood shakily on the handrail next to the stairs, then jumped and pulled herself into the ducts.

There was no way of knowing which way the three had gone. Velma only sat for a moment and prayed for an accurate burst of intuition just then. She chose the direction and followed it.

Sure enough, Velma soon came to a room where the grate had been pulled off the duct. In all likelihood the kidnapper had been in too much of a hurry to put it back on. She jumped into the room.

Nobody was in there.

Velma felt a surge of frustration before noticing something: a trail. Every few feet, a couple more bright orange crumbs seemed to be trying to direct her somewhere.

Shaggy had had a bag of chips at lunch, hadn't he? Cheetos. Then he had shoved the empty bag, crumbs and all, into his back pocket.

Velma wasn't sure if this Hansel-and-Gretel trail was intentional or not, but she felt positive it would lead to Shaggy. She followed it out of the room.

----------------------------------------------------

"Shaggy!"

Shaggy looked up from his position tied to the pole. It was Velma, all right. She had found him, somehow.

"You found me? Like how?" Shaggy asked.

"You left a Cheeto trail," Velma answered, untying Shaggy and Scooby. Then she remembered when she had first climbed into the ducts and didn't know whether to go left or right. Somehow she had chosen correctly with nothing else to go on, except... "And it was a bit of dumb luck," she added. "Yours must be rubbing off on me." Shaggy smiled at her.

"So... who tied you here, Shaggy?" Velma asked him.

"A Veq," he answered. Velma shuddered. Something seemed very ominous about never having actually seen one yet knowing they were lurking all over the place.

"Which way did it go?" she asked.

Shaggy pointed toward the door. Velma opened it. She turned around.

"Well, no wonder it's gone..." she told Shaggy.

"Like why?"

"Shaggy, do you know what's behind every door on this hallway except this one?"

"No, what?"

"These are guest rooms. For ambassadors who stay at the CCC overnight," Velma answered. "Only you can tell by this door's smaller size and squarish shape that it doesn't lead to another bedroom." She grinned humorously. "This is the laundry chute."

"Ohhhhh," Shaggy and Scooby responded together. Shaggy, laughing, ran up and kissed Velma, partly out of this new habit but mostly out of relief. Scooby looked away, turning red under his fur.

"Thanks, Shag," Velma told him. "I-- I was so worried that something might have happened to you..."

"And like I was wondering if he would go after you once we were out of the way," Shaggy confessed. They kissed again, the relief greater this time. Velma's professionalism didn't care, for a change, that they were late for a meeting, that anyone could come down the hall and catch them at any time...

Shaggy didn't want to get Velma in trouble. He himself didn't care if he were fired, but out of concern for how seriously Velma took her work he pulled back.

"So, uh, 'Miss Dinkley', " he said with a wink, "I like picked up a hair that that Veq thing shed after he disappeared." He started speaking more formally. "I know that as Veqs aren't registered in the genetic database, but perhaps this could be used to identify which species they might be most closely related to." Velma grinned knowingly. Obviously that speech was rehearsed, and Velma was surprised he had produced it without access to a dictionary.

"Great," she told him, "but after the meeting. We'll be excused from the part we've missed after we explain what happened" _Leaving out certain details, _she thought, "but we really should save the testing until later. You know, we can probably run it through the scanner that detects carbon-12 to C-14 ratios. As long as the sample was pulled recently, we can probably get a reading that will accurately match it to the planet with the most similar atmosphere, if it's one in our database. If not, we at least know what to tell those discovering new planets about environmental conditions to watch out for..."

Good old Velma. Always devoted to her work...

----------------------------------------------------------

After an unendurably long meeting, Shaggy, Scooby, and Velma waited around in the lab, waiting to read the machine's results. Velma could already envision what the screen would look like... something along the lines of:

-----

Species match (approximation): (fill in the blank)

Planet of origin (approximation): (fill in the blank)

-----

"Raggy! Relma! Rit's rone!" Scooby called from next to the screen.

Shaggy and Velma walked across the lab eagerly. Finally, the results were in... the clue was available...

But wait. These results had to be a mistake... they were impossible...

The three gasped as they read:

-----

Species match (confirmed): Human

Planet of origin (confirmed): Earth

-----


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26:

A car pulled up in the driveway.

Seven hours early?

No!

Velma had not been expecting this. Daphne had _said _she would probably be back around midnight... or 1 a.m. Not 5:30 in the afternoon...

"Shaggy?" she whispered, alarmed. Had he heard it too? Maybe it was just Velma's overactive imagination.

But no, Shaggy had heard the tires pull up in front of the house as well. He let go suddenly. Hopefully neither Daphne nor Freddie had caught sight of them through the window.

Well, the blinds were drawn, at least. Still, there were those narrow windows next to the door. Granted they distorted everything with their little wavy pattern-- it was someone's idea of aesthetic housing design-- but maybe out of the corner of his or her eye, someone had caught a glimpse of a green blur that was just a little closer to the orange blur than it should be.

Velma jumped up and answered the door just as Daphne had reached the front step. "Daphne! You're back early!"

Daphne grinned. "We just missed the rest of you so badly we had to come back. Actually, that is part of the answer. And... the other part is we felt that the sooner we got back, the sooner we could move everything into the new house. I'll move a few necessities today and tonight will be our first night at home."

Freddie smiled at his pregnant wife. "You won't be moving anything. Just tell me what needs moving and I'll do it for you." He kissed her, out in the open.

_That's not fair, _Shaggy thought. _Why can't Velma and I do that in front of Daphne and Freddie?_ But even as he thought that, he felt certain spots on his cheeks grow very warm. He was worried somehow that bright pink lip-shaped prints were already open and obvious, despite the fact that Velma never even wore lipstick.

Velma, likewise, was beginning to wonder if Shaggy's perpetually greasy hands had left telltale prints against her sweater. Did Freddie and Daphne know, somehow, what had happened, and maybe they were just playing dumb?

And of course, both wondered whether the six boxes of Scooby Snacks they had initially used to bribe Scooby Doo with would really suffice to keep their secret.

"So, did you guys get lonely without us?" Daphne asked Velma, and Velma could almost hear the telltale heart. Daphne knew, surely she knew, that while of course Velma had missed her, Shaggy had always and would always be enough to keep her company...

Velma went with the lie. "Of course, Daphne!" She hugged her friend, feeling the secret burning in her chest...


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27:

Doctor's appointments. Daphne always hated them. They were the worst part of being pregnant.

The only good thing about them was that CCC policy said that employees must be paid for time taken off for the sake of an appointment with a physician, so if she was kept in the waiting room for who knew how long, she could just sit and read and still be getting paid for it. Of course, it wasn't like there was usually much to read in the waiting room, at least not much to read that she was sure she hadn't read maybe three or four years ago, but still.

Just as Daphne had gotten comfortable on the green sofa, though, she thought she heard a very faint series of whispers coming from... could it really be from across the building? Daphne had never really mentioned this to anyone, because whenever she thought she was sure about it it would go away again. She had noticed ever since she had been examined following the Veq's break-in she had felt a very perceptive sense of hearing from time to time. The best explanation she could think of was that if the equipment used to check for head injuries was programmed to automatically fix any simpler problems, and if it was designed by a species with superior hearing to that of humans, perhaps it saw her average hearing as a problem and "fixed" it. She wasn't sure, come to think of it, why her head had been checked (maybe they thought the possibility of a Veq intrusion sounded far-fetched and crazy?); neither was she sure why, if her hearing really had automatically received an upgrade, they didn't even have the technology to repair her broken skin on the spot, but she was pretty sure that if this new hearing ability was anything, that was where it had started.

At any rate, the voices she was hearing certainly were not registering with anyone else in the waiting room. Bored of the magazines, she listened in:

"It is ready, is it not?" Boring. Some lab test, probably.

"Of course, within a matter of days..." Okay, so most tests probably wouldn't take that long to register. But as Daphne hadn't tuned in soon enough to hear the whole conversation, it could have been something profoundly obscure.

Something rubber kept smacking the floor. Somebody was pacing. "You know I have little time to wait."

"As do I. There are patients sitting outside by the truckload, and I need to get back to them."

More pacing. "Just remember... the sooner it arrives, the sooner you can stop having to pay such heavy electrical prices. That will drive down costs here at the clinic."

Dull as vanilla ice cream. They were talking about some power-saving device. Probably they had ordered it from some catalogue that had free shipping but took ten-to-twelve weeks for delivery.

Her heart skipped, though, at the next line.

"This is not to say you should forget that the bulk of it will be mine. Do not forget your station."

Something about that sounded very ominous and frightening. Were they really talking about a power-saving device at all? Now Daphne was inclined to doubt it. However, just as she was listening for more, her new hearing capabilities began to wear down again.

"Mrs. Daphne Jones?" Hearing that favorite new name of hers, Daphne stood up, forgetting everything about that previous conversation, and followed the nurse down the hall.


	28. Chapter 28

**A/N:** Those of you who think the details of Shaggy's school days are too harsh to be plausible, let it be known that that actually happened to this author once. It was the only time I ever got sent to the principal's office for misbehavior (hee hee, I'm such a good girl).

Chapter 28:

The good thing was that Shaggy was able to walk to Velma's apartment to pick her up.

Ever since moving out of the house she and Daphne had once shared, Velma had never been entirely certain how to explain if Daphne ever asked why she had moved into the same complex as Shaggy, especially since there were several cheaper, more spacious apartments closer to work. Fortunately, Daphne had never pressed the issue, which could be interpreted as meaning either that she was uninterested and would never really ask, or as meaning that she already knew and was going to humor Velma for a while before getting her to admit it. Velma optimistically hoped for the former.

Despite being about mid-October, there had been a bit of an Indian summer lately, so Velma and Shaggy decided to take advantage of the fresh air and warmth and walk to the restaurant. Besides, this gave them more time to talk in private.

Velma was just laughing at an anecdote of Shaggy's that dated way back to before her promotion to fifth grade. It was something about a substitute teacher who sent him to the principal's office for accidentally dropping his paper on the floor. Once there, the principal had naturally assumed there had to be more to the story than clumsy fingers, so Shaggy was left in a tiny wooden chair in a tiny closet at the back of the office until he would tell more. As there was nothing more to tell, he just sat there all day. He told the story with an overdramatically traumatized look on his face, but Velma could tell that was just to amuse her.

_Why hasn't he ever told me this before? _Velma pondered. She had known Shaggy for almost twelve years, and he had never mentioned this before. Come to think of it, from how often Shaggy would reminisce about his school days, it was hard to believe he wasn't born the day before she met him.

"Yeah," Velma answered when he had finished. "I think I had that substitute once, actually. She lectured me for reading a Ray Bradbury novel during Sustained Silent Reading... Fahrenheit 451, I think. She said kids shouldn't be reading books like that. She sent a note home to my parents. I had just started school and they were just amazed that I even _could _read that book..." Now it was Velma's turn to reveal her innermost childhood traumas.

"Zoinks. Like, I still can't read that book."

"Well, you haven't really read much of anything since eighth grade, have you?"

"Nope." Shaggy grinned and shrugged it off. He was very competent at being incompetent. "Like, I think I'd freak out if our five-year-old brought home a book like that."

Velma cheerfully walked three or four paces before it struck her. She turned around.

"_Our _five-year-old?"

Shaggy blushed. Busted. "Okay, so I've like imagined it... a couple of times... I mean it's not impossible..."

Velma let him go. "Well... I _did _catch the bouquet..."

Marriage. Somehow the idea had adorned the entire conversation without the word ever being uttered. Why was it so taboo?

Why was their love so taboo?

Velma spoke again, seriously. "I guess it really isn't impossible. But it's pretty far off. I mean, we just graduated... I'm just barely a legal adult..."

"So... you're saying it's possible but not likely?"

"That's not what I'm saying," Velma answered him, hoping desperately he wouldn't assume she was trying to break up with him or anything like that. Still, his question did bring the statistics to mind... what were the odds, really? Most women dated quite a few guys before deciding on whom to marry. What were the chances that "the one" would be Shaggy?

Velma shook herself. For once in her life, could she stop sorting everything into boxes and numbers? This wasn't about statistics, or probability, or any kind of neat, formulatic equation that would automatically sort everything out. This was about Shaggy.

Turning to face him, Velma explained, "I think what I am saying is that we can't exactly run off and elope while most of the world doesn't even know we care about each other." The thought of Fred and Daphne's ignorance to the matter, if said ignorance even existed, once again struck a guilty chord with her.

"Well, they will... in the future..." Shaggy envisioned.

"And I think we will... in the future." Velma assured him.

They stared up at the sky on this warm, clear night-- perhaps the last one until next spring. Hundreds of stars adorned the view. Velma found that this was maybe the first night in her life where the sky was not about Polaris, and Orion, and Ursa Major. It was simply about stars, the brightest (in her eyes and heart) being the one standing right next to her.

"Weird, like, isn't it?" Shaggy asked after a minute. "Some of the people we talk to at work are living up there right now."

Velma laughed. She hadn't thought of that. The universe was a big place, yet it was full-- full of life, and people, and hope.

Just then a shooting star whizzed past. Somehow, without saying a word, both wished for the same thing.


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter 29:

There was no time to think. There was time to _run _if there were anywhere _to_ run. There was no time to question the wisdom of running.

It had started as a standard day-at-the-office. Freddie was attending a meeting, as the leader of Mystery, Inc. Shaggy was sorting out expired ID cards required to access certain security areas, as always accompanied by Scooby, classifying them as either _To Be Renewed _or _To Be Terminated._ Daphne and Velma were on security duty. All was well until noonish.

That was when the infiltration occurred.

There had been no warning, other than a loud metallic buzzing a split second before the Veqs arrived. Clearly the first person to see them had pulled the alarm, initiating an immediate evacuation.

For just about everyone in the building, life was the first priority. The Veqs were heavily armed, with weapons that nobody had ever seen before and thus could not identify. For everyone in the building, the only thing that mattered was getting _out._ Everyone, that is, except two.

Daphne and Velma.

Fortunately, seeing as they were so far down, the Veqs hadn't actually found them yet, but by the very brief intercom message they received following the pulling of the alarm they knew there was little time. But they could not _go_. The Orb must be protected; the lives of millions of Fizlayens depended on it.

The idea of simply carrying the Orb with them was completely ludicrous; it was too large to conceal surreptitiously, and once the Veqs caught up with them they would take it with whatever means were necessary, killing the carrier if they had to.

Daphne could think of only one possibility. She loaded her gun.

Velma, however, was busily working at a box of wires near the back. Daphne looked at her, alarmed.

"Velma!" she screamed. "The Veqs are coming! They've got us cornered! There is no other way out of this basement! We need to fight them!"

Velma tried to answer calmly. Her voice was shaking.

"I know. But our mission here is to protect the Orb. Not necessarily by shooting at those who might wish to take it..."

Daphne was confused. Velma continued.

"Over the past several months, Mr. Fizlayer and I have been working on this force-shield system that should protect the Orb from any outside forces. It was almost ready... now if I can just change a few things around I should be able to activate it..."

"You never told the rest of us about that!"

"Sorry! 'Loose lips sink ships.' But that is the real reason I got that raise, at least the bulk of it... the translation may have tacked on five or ten..."

"Whatever! Just hurry!" Daphne yelled. Her perceptive hearing seemed to be acting up again... the Veqs were coming down the stairs...

"Almost..." Velma exclaimed.

The creatures burst open the door. There were maybe fifteen or twenty... All at once they lunged for the Orb. Daphne shot at as many as she could. She was outnumbered; she couldn't keep track of all of them...

"...there!" Velma finished. She turned around triumphantly as a huge wall of green light formed around the Orb. She had done it; the Veqs were retreating--

Her joy did not last long. As soon as they fled, Velma saw the unconscious, limp form of Daphne on the cold floor before her.

Velma rushed down and pressed the emergency button on the intercom system, summoning help. Hopefully the emergency workers hadn't abandoned the CCC in the struggle... no, someone had stuck around to answer. Velma told him everything that had happened, but briefly... she had to get to Daphne, to make sure her friend was all right...

She felt for breathing. Good. Years ago Velma had taken a course in rescue breathing, but she didn't think she remembered everything... Instantly Velma's second reaction was to feel Daphne's stomach.

Miraculously, the child was still kicking. The baby would live if the mother survived... or maybe they could at least deliver the child safely; at eight months she still had a chance...

Velma brushed the thought away. She didn't want to think about her friend... dying?

"Hang on, Daphne..." Velma whispered. "They're sending help... you'll be okay... hold on..."


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30:

Daphne awoke, dazed. Had everything else been a dream? There. She heard Fred's voice. She would be back in her own room, with Freddie lying right next to her. The Veqs weren't attacking; she was just stressed out from work and had a nightmare. She was fine.

Except.

Upon opening her eyes, it took Daphne a full minute to realize that the walls were white. Sterile white. Daphne's room at home was not white. And Freddie wasn't _in _her bed; he was sitting in a chair next to it. He seemed relieved when she stirred.

"Hey, Daphne," he said.

"Hi... did... was I really...?"

Fred's face turned serious. "You were attacked by seventeen Veqs simultaneously. That was brave of you, defending the orb... but it appears that they pulled one of their weapons on you..."

Everything came crashing down on Daphne at once. There was no denying it. A horrible thought gripped her mind.

"Freddie?" she asked. "Is Janice...?"

"The baby is fine. That was one of the first things they checked when they examined you. We're not sure how she pulled through when you barely made it yourself, but right now she's in better shape than you are."

"That's not saying a lot," Daphne responded groggily. "I feel awful. Don't expect me to come in to work tomorrow," she said, grinning feebly.

Fred sighed his you're-about-to-hear-something-you-won't-like sigh. "Daphne, new security measures are being placed on the Coolsville Communication Center. We've gone up to code black. That means that working there has become highly dangerous." He rubbed his forehead. "It's a risk the rest of us are willing to take. But you--"

"I've got more than myself to think of." Daphne nodded, understanding. "But are you sure they can't just give me a desk job somewhere? Something that's low-risk?"

"The whole _building _is high-risk now, Daphne. Policy will let you receive pay while you take some time off. Maternity leave officially begins now."

Daphne only lay there, thinking. This could be... fun... She tried to stay focused on the positives. Yet strangely, although she complained about work (as does almost everyone who is employed), she felt more stressed-out at the thought of staying home... alone... day after day... nothing to do but see what soaps were on...

Freddie lovingly played with her hair, speaking softly to her. "It's okay, I'll try to get home as soon as possible... but don't think about any of that now. What you need now is rest.

Daphne nodded and yawned. Yet one thing was bothering her, somehow.

"Freddie?" she asked. "What happened to the Orb?"

Fred looked at her. He wasn't sure whether he should tell her this in her state or not. Finally he looked at her and delivered the good news first.

"Velma's force shield worked for a while. It worked long enough to hold off the Veqs..."

"But?"

"It really wasn't ready to be used for that yet. They weren't even planning to test it for another month or so. Velma had to make some very last-minute modifications to get it to work that one time. After that it burned out, and now they have to start from scratch."

"But the Orb is safe... right?" Daphne braced herself. How would she react if the thing she had risked her life and her daughter's life for turned out to have been stolen anyway?

"Well... for now," Freddie answered. He breathed. "The truth is that we know its days are numbered. We have no idea when the Veqs might launch a full-scale attack again. The Fizlayens have no choice but to evacuate as many people as they can before they run out of power."

"But if it cranks out even _more_ energy than a star," Daphne wondered, "why can't they make extra batteries... to stock up for a while, at least?"

"They're doing that as much as they can," Freddie answered, "but understand how much gets lost in transportation. This kind of battery is very difficult to move between our solar system and their planet as it is. They have to factor in a large portion of their supply getting robbed, damaged due to turbulence, lost, thrown overboard in ship emergencies--"

"I see." Daphne tried to avoid the thought. She hated how it would feel to be so dependent on something many lightyears away, with so much room for danger in between. "And they can't move the Orb because--"

"--because the Veqs would almost certainly set up an ambush between here and the new safe place. These are mysterious beings. We aren't really sure what their technology is capable of. Besides that, we're not really sure another safe place exists. There are few people the Fizlayens can trust, and we are among those people. We're not sure what they'll do if we can't keep them safe."

How did Fred know all this, anyway? He must have asked these same questions himself... he must have been this scared himself. Was that possible?

Daphne buried her face in Fred's arms, crying. He was there for her... certainly more than Earth was there for Fizlayer...


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter 31:

Within a few days, Daphne was ready to go home. She packed up the cards, stuffed toys, flowers, and candy. Freddie carried them out to the Mystery Machine while Daphne filled out some last random paperwork.

Freddie had just come in again to walk her out to the parking lot when he saw she was on the phone, her back to the door. Soon she hung up and turned around.

She was crying.

"Daphne?" Fred questioned, concerned. Who was she talking to?

"Freddie... we can't go out to the van. We have to go see Daddy. He's in the intensive care unit."

Fred followed the patient visiting the patient. He understood his wife's feelings; however, he was questioning the wisdom of her going to see Mr. Blake so soon. Surely there would be some interrogation... why was his daughter in the hospital in the first place? Daphne's doctors and nurses had been given special security clearance to treat anyone coming in from the CCC, but they had yet to concoct a cover story for anyone else as to how she had received her injuries.

Freddie would make one up. He would say that she had been in a car crash, or that she had fallen from somewhere. Something. Right now Daphne was too distressed to make one up for herself.

As it turned out, no cover story was needed. Mr. Blake was not capable of questioning his daughter. He didn't even appear to be conscious when the Joneses entered his room.

Daphne cried even harder after seeing him. Here he was, with tubes and machines hooked up to him, just barely keeping him alive. Never in her life had Daphne seen her father so weak. Sure, her earliest memories of him were of a Mr. Blake in his early fifties, but he had been a _healthy_ fifty-something, not only joining but owning various gyms and health clubs. Yet now no amount of his money could buy a cure for his cancer.

He was going to die. Fizlayer was going to die. It was fitting that it was autumn-- the last bits of color were draining from once-lively people everywhere, all in preparation for the cold that was to come.

Daphne held her stomach and considered the life inside with a last ray of hope. It might be nearly winter everywhere else. But Daphne knew someone for whom spring was just around the corner.


	32. Chapter 32

Chapter 32:

Daphne groaned and cast the remote aside. There was nothing on TV, except a slow news day, soaps, preschool programming, soaps, weather, and soaps.

As much as Daphne had fallen in love with the house months ago, one could only take it in small doses, especially when it no one else was home. She had tried to take up a hobby. First she tried knitting, but aside from it being so stereotypical of a pregnant woman, all she felt she was doing was tangling the yarn. She tried crossword puzzles, but honestly, they all contained pop culture trivia that dated back twenty or thirty years before Daphne was even born. Once she thought about gardening, but then smacked herself: It was November. Oh, well. In a couple weeks her imprisonment would be over. She and Freddie would have a kid. All would be well.

The truth was, the most likely reason why Daphne had so little patience for her attempted hobbies was that all was _not _well. Try as she might to distract herself, every now and then the image of Daphne's father would flash back into her mind. They honestly didn't expect him to live more than another week or two. Would there be some way of waking him up to see Janice if he survived until she was born? Sometimes Daphne would visit him, would talk to him, but she never knew, nor did any of the doctors know, whether he could actually hear her. Maybe if Mr. Blake could just hear his granddaughter cry, to know that she was alive and well in this world, that would heal _something_, if not his cancer.

Daphne stood up. She needed to get away from this house, gone stale with everything she had thought and dreaded since her accident. She put on her coat and gloves and stepped outside.

She had no idea where she was going, or even how far she was going. All she knew was that she had to get away. It was strange how a cold day with completely gray skies and leafless trees could be freedom as opposed to the comfortable indoors, but strangely Daphne did feel her spirits lift just a tiny bit. Here, at least, were distractions. She looked up at the cloudy sky and wondered if it would snow anytime soon. She remembered when she and her friends were in middle school, how whenever they called a snow day from school it meant one thing: Snowball fights. She remembered how it was almost always herself and Fred against Shaggy and Velma. Then one day Shaggy, after losing seven games out of ten, had asked to switch it to boys versus girls. Needless to say, he was disappointed when the girls won more dramatically than any victory had been in any other game.

Here it was. The cycle again. Just when the distraction seemed to be really working, and she would start to feel good again, she would be reminded why she wasn't feeling good in the first place. Then she would have to find something else to take her mind off of everything.

Maybe she could listen. To something-- birds, maybe? She was pretty sure that this acute hearing had improved even more since the accident, and Fred seemed to be noticing. No matter where he was in the house, Daphne could easily hear his footsteps, and if he swore anywhere indoors, Daphne would jokingly reprimand him: "Is that any example to set for our daughter?"

She tuned in. It seemed she could use this ability at will now, almost. She would listen for birds.

She heard voices.

"Must a second attempt be made so soon?"

"It must. We must before they get back on their feet."

"Won't they have increased security?"

"They will have taken precautions to protect themselves. But the truth is that we destroyed much of their defensive technology. They can't save the Orb if we strike immediately. The Veqs will be victorious. Now it is but a matter of time..."

Daphne's heart froze. She had no idea what distance she was hearing the words over, but however far away they were, she had to warn the CCC. She raced home and picked up the phone.

The line was dead.

Were the Veqs expecting her to call the center, somehow? Or was it just the weather? It was snowing now, but not enough to knock out a phone line. Maybe it was snowing harder between here and the CCC.

Daphne had to drive. She knew there was one thing to do, and that was to arrive before the Veqs.

She raced there. She broke the speed limit undoubtably; when the lives of an entire planet were on the line it was necessary.

She drove, closer and closer to the beast which had only just missed claiming her last time...


	33. Chapter 33

Chapter 33:

"Daphne!" her friends exclaimed when they saw her. Somehow they were the first people she saw upon walking in.

"Daphne, you're supposed--" Fred started, walking towards her.

Daphne interrupted him. "I know. And I think you will agree that my reasons are justified."

She told them exactly what she had heard, watching the alarm on their faces. Finally she finished.

"So, like, how long do we have?" Shaggy asked, frightened.

"Probably just a few minutes. I mean, the voices were coming from the opposite direction to the CCC, so I think I would have gotten here first. Plus, I rushed. The Veqs likely would have sneaked under cover... slowly... even so we don't have much time."

"Well... like what can we do?" Shaggy pondered as Velma rushed to warn the rest of the facility.

"I have a plan!" exclaimed Freddie. Of course. A latent instinct had recently sprung into action...

---------------------------------

"So how come nobody ever thought of locking this Orb up in the first place?" Shaggy asked as everyone else shifted things into position.

"Because the lock would be broken in two minutes," Velma answered, having returned from informing Mr. Mangetout. "Honestly, we're dealing with an advanced alien race. They can burn through metal. Easily."

"Then like why are we locking it up now?" Shaggy was thoroughly confused.

"Because we need the two minutes it would take for the Veqs to open it... and discover that the Orb isn't really in there."

"Then where is it?"

"Hidden..." Fred answered evasively. "If we have this safe just out in the middle of the open, it will look like it contains the Orb. Odds are the Veqs will fall for it and while they're busy with that we can drop this metal cage over them."

"Who would've thunk the CCC would just have a giant metal box lying around?" Shaggy asked. The cage really was more of an enclosed box than a series of bars. In fact, there didn't even appear to be any air holes. "But like if the cage is made of metal and the Veqs can cut through metal--"

"That would also take time. Especially since the walls are six inches thick. The point of the cage isn't to contain them; it's to act as a quarantine for the sedative gas we'll use to knock them out until we can take their weapons away and restrain them properly for interrogation."

Shaggy wasn't really sure how the heavy metal box was attached to the ceiling, but fortunately dropping it was not his job. Freddie would manage that, just as he had done the honors since teenhood. All Shaggy had to do was push a button which would release the knockout gas through vents in the floor. The plan was ready for when the Veqs would come...

There were footsteps...

Yellow eyes peeked in through the door...

-------------------------------------------------

Shaggy had to hand it to Fred: His trap-setting skills had greatly improved over time.

As he and Freddie walked over the metallic cube which now sat in the center of the room, they were joined by Velma, who like Fred had been perched in the rafters but unlike Fred had simply been there to shoot any Veqs the box might have missed. This had not been necessary; for some reason there were fewer Veqs than last time and the box could easily center on them all.

Velma passed out their gas masks as Freddie opened a small door on the side of the cage, which had been locked from the inside. Shaggy clicked on a flashlight and looked around.

None of them were looking forward to moving these large creatures-- which Velma was still convinced were not human, one of few times she disbelieved a test she herself had performed. Still, Freddie called in some other employees to help out and they set to work.

Finally, all were unarmed and restrained within their own little rooms. Mr. Mangetout thought it best to keep them separated. That way, upon the inquisition that was to follow, they could catch lies by inconsistencies in their stories. Obviously they could have concocted a story earlier on, but the Veqs seemed too arrogant to account for the possibility of capture. With Mr. Mangetout's permission, Freddie left to accompany Daphne, who had gone home again after being urged for safety's sake. She would have loved to be in on the action, but... she had done enough already. Probably the Veqs were all gone gone or contained... but they weren't sure.

Well, now the nostalgic yay-we-caught-the-bad-guy-now-call-the-police phase was over. Now it was Shaggy and Velma's turn to interrogate the bad guys, not the police's. Following Mr. Mangetout's and Mr. Fizlayer's leads, they set off, wandering from room to room, discovering things...


	34. Chapter 34

Chapter 34:

Daphne opened the door at the sight of them out the window. She let Shaggy, Scooby, and Velma enter, along with Mr. Mangetout and Mr. Fizlayer.

It felt kind of odd to be the ones listening to the results of a mystery, instead of the ones reporting what they had found. Oh well. Daphne knew she had played a role in solving it, at least...

"Hi," she greeted Velma.

"They're human," Velma responded, jumping in. "The Veqs, I mean. And most of them don't live all that far from Coolsville."

"So... what did they want the Orb for, anyway?"

"Power," Velma answered, then clarified. "Not 'power' as in what every villian wants... power as in free electricity. Only Mr. Veq, who organized these people, actually wanted the Orb itself. The rest own businesses or medical practices and wanted the free electricity that could be obtained from the Orb. I don't think most of them understood that another planet needed the Orb to survive."

"So that's why the phone died, I'll bet."

Velma nodded. "Mr. Derrick Holton. His work with the phone company enabled him to shut down the lines. I think the Veqs wanted to take precautions. We discovered all this after unmasking them. We took photos, if you want to see who they are. The thing is, _we _have used some of the businesses involved here. Scary."

Daphne leafed through the stack. Her heart pounded about halfway through.

"I know this one," she told Velma. "This is my obstetrician." Suddenly, she was frightened that she had entrusted this person with her own daughter.

Velma smiled. "Not once he's in jail."

"But... what about the rest of the Veqs?"

"Well, we can at least rest assured that they wouldn't dare make another attempt at the Orb. Mr. Veq may not have been in the basement, but we discovered his location and he was arrested just over an hour ago."

"That's good," Daphne answered cheerfully.

"And the reason Mr. Fizlayer and Mr. Mangetout came with us, Daphne, is that there is still something that needs to be settled."

"What's that?"

Mr. Fizlayer answered. "Amongst my people, there is a custom which is rigidly followed in all situations." He cleared his throat. "When another planet performs something heroic in the eyes of ours, we must bestow a gift on the hero. It is usually a gift which the recipient could not receive anywhere on his or her own planet, such as a piece of technology or medicine. We have conferred and agreed that the heroism here rests with you. Without your advance warning, the Orb could not have been secured in time. We wish to ask what sort of gift might be appropriate."

An idea flashed through Daphne's mind. "You... you say medicine..."

"Yes... Fizlayen practices have expanded the average lifespan to well over a hundred years."

"Can... can they cure cancer?"

"Most definitely."

Daphne turned to Mr. Mangetout. "I know what I would like. But... you're the only person who could give the person I'm talking about security clearance. Can you do that?"

"It depends on the person in question, but if the person is someone close to you, whom you trust, it is quite likely that we can trust him or her as well."

Daphne was crying hopefully. "Can you cure my father's cancer?"


	35. Chapter 35

Chapter 35:

Thanksgiving. Janice still hadn't arrived yet, despite November 14's having come and gone.

"Well, if she takes after you," Fred joked, "you know she'll be late."

Daphne tried to don an offended expression, but she was laughing too hard.

She and Velma were setting the table. Shaggy and Scooby were in the kitchen. Shaggy's college major was definitely an asset at this time of year. Freddie was half-watching football, having been shooed away from every other task. Velma and Daphne often laughed at his inability to remember that the knife's blade always faced the plate, or that the _fork _(four letters) went on the _left _(four letters). If he weren't in such a good mood, Fred could have described the frustration of the mnemonic device in his own four-letter-word.

"Hey, Daphne, could you get the door, like, my hands are greasy!" Shaggy called from the kitchen.

Daphne didn't even need to be asked. She ran to open the door the moment she saw him out the window.

"Daddy!" she exclaimed. "Glad you could make it!"

Mr. Blake smiled at his daughter. It was obvious that not only was the cancer healed, but he had been restored to the health he had possessed a long, long time ago.

Daphne led him into the dining room, where Velma had just finished pouring his apple cider, now that they were sure he was coming. The treatment, while thorough, had taken two long weeks, and they hadn't been sure whether he would be finished by Thanksgiving. Good thing he was.

Shaggy was finally finished with all the food preparations and summoned everyone into the dining room. He had shown remarkable restraint in not eating everything before it reached the table, but his willpower certainly had its limitations.

Mr. Blake offered to say blessing, and the rest agreed. Head bowed, Daphne could hear the very things she was thankful for echoing from her father's mouth: Food... friends... family... health... Janice...

This was a good feeling.

-------------------------------------

When any holiday has so much snow on the ground, nobody who was ever a child can pretend not to notice. That was more or less what Velma told Shaggy when she invited him to go for a walk in the woods behind Fred and Daphne's house. There really wasn't much about the woods that Daphne hadn't already explored with Freddie, though, so both of them declined. Mr. Blake and Scooby stayed with them, drinking hot chocolate by the fire, Daphne rooting through ads for the after-Thanksgiving sales.

"How cute," she commented, looking out the window after she was sure her friends had come back from the woods. "They stopped to build an igloo."

"I bet you a buck they'll only finish it halfway. It's probably just a fort for a snowball fight." Fred smiled over the rim of his cup.

"Naw... Shaggy's probably forgotten all about that decade-old grudge by now... I bet if you watch they'll even be next in the line of fire."

"What line of fire? Oh... Shaggy and Velma, eh?" He laughed. "It'll never work."

"Bet you _two_ dollars, then," Daphne offered. "Just remember our wedding."

Out the window, Shaggy himself was still questioning Velma's enthusiasm for an igloo. Why did she want one so bad? What was so great about an igloo? Yet every time he asked, she would simply explain, "You'll see once it's done."

Finally, the last blocks were added to the very top of the structure. Then Velma slipped in, beckoning for Shaggy to follow.

"Despite its temperature, snow often acts as an insulator," Velma explained. "It should be cozy in here."

She kissed him.

Now Shaggy got it...

---------------------------------------

It was getting dark. How long had they been out here... an hour, maybe two?

Velma looked at her watch. Jinkies. How could three and a half hours fly by without you feeling them slip past you?

"We should go in," she told Shaggy, suddenly worried as to whether anyone would ask how they had whiled away 210 minutes on a walk that usually took 20.

Shaggy nodded sorrowfully. Velma climbed out first, with her boyfriend close behind.

Mr. Blake was walking across the snow towards them, smiling as though he knew what they were up to. Maybe he did. Whatever. He wasn't _their _father.

Yet as they grew closer his smile widened, something exciting just burning to spill past his lips.

"Fred and Daphne told me to let you know that they have gone to the hospital." He allowed the elating news to sink in. "Daphne is in labor."


	36. Chapter 36

Chapter 36:

It was getting very late, but even so Shaggy and Velma waited loyaly in the hospital waiting room. The instructions had been to go home, get some rest; there was no need to wait around when there was no telling how long this could take. Even so, did Freddie and Daphne honestly expect their best friends to just go home and sleep normally on a night like this?

They had dropped Scooby off at Shaggy's apartment; it wasn't that he didn't want to wait too, but that discriminatory no-dogs-allowed sign had squelched that chance. Mr. Blake had gone to be with his daughter; the hospital only allowed husbands and immediate family to be present, so that left Velma and Shaggy. Alone.

Here there was a contradiction: Of course both of them were eager to meet someone they had spent months hearing about without ever seeing. Yet as long as they waited here, they did wait together.

But this wasn't like the igloo. Sure, it was "cozy" and they were surrounded completely by white, but now wasn't the time to sneak off and make out. Now was the time for serious discussion.

"Shaggy..."

"Yeah, Velma?"

"I was just wondering... how long will it take?"

Both of them knew she wasn't talking about the delivery.

"Well..." Shaggy answered, trying to be truthful. "I can't say I would know. It was your idea."

Velma nodded. She knew what he meant: He was really keeping silent at her request. She had started it; he would stop it when she was ready.

"I... I guess I just feel guilty. Guilty that I'm scared to talk to them about it, somehow."

Shaggy knew about fear. "Guilty that we don't trust them?"

"I don't know how that could be, though. I mean, there isn't any way to betray our trust with this, is there? There's nothing they could or would do to us. So why would I be afraid?"

"Maybe it's _because _there isn't any way to betray our trust." Smart Shaggy was starting to peer around Dumb Shaggy again, and Velma listened. "Maybe it's because this is such a big, wonderful thing that it seems nothing could go wrong... that it's too good to be true. I think you're trying to stop anything from going wrong by eliminating one possibility, and pretending it's the only thing that could go wrong." He turned to look at Velma. "I think it's okay. I think that we will stay together if we really were meant for each other. And I know we are."

Deep and romantic. Here, somehow, was the Shaggy who tried so hard to bury himself under a heavily stained green shirt, who tried to laugh everything off as though it were a joke.

But when it really mattered to him, Shaggy wasn't afraid of anything, least of all his true self. Velma admired that more than ever.

"So we should tell them?"

"So we should tell them."

With the seriousness out of the way, they kissed-- amazingly for the first time since they entered the waiting room. And of course as they finished it and were contemplating a second they realized that they heard footsteps.

They turned and saw Freddie.

Well, now they didn't need to actually _tell _anyone.

Fred laughed. "Thanks a lot... now I owe Daphne two dollars... and she just got to name the baby."

"It is a girl, then?" Velma asked, straightening.

"It's a girl." Fred smiled proudly. "Nine pounds, three ounces. Janice Rachel Jones."

"So any chance we can see her soon?"

"Right now." Freddie led the way.

-------------------------------

After cooing over little Janice for a while, Mr. Blake, Velma, and Shaggy left to give the family some privacy.

_Family. _Freddie liked the sound of that. As he and Daphne looked at their newborn sleeping peacefully, they both saw eighteen years flash before their eyes. They saw a small girl skipping off to her first day of school... a middle-school-age girl hosting slumber parties and maybe cheerleading... a high-school girl dating and maybe even falling in love herself. Both parents were thinking the same thing: Eighteen years of legal custody couldn't possibly be enough.

The child stirred, awakening. She even opened her eyes a little. Daphne stroked her soft, newborn hair. It couldn't seem to make up its mind what color it wanted to be: There were a few strands that were Fred's blonde shade exactly, and some that perfectly matched Daphne's red. Then there were those indecisives with an in-between color.

Daphne smiled at her daughter. She pointed to herself. "Mommy," she whispered. She pointed to Freddie. "Daddy." She pointed to the baby. "Janice."

"Mommy loves Janice," she continued, wanting to establish this early. "Daddy loves Janice. Mommy loves Daddy--"

"--and Daddy loves Mommy," Fred finished for her.

Janice went back to sleep, seeming just a little more peaceful and assured than she had been before.

**A/N: **No, this isn't the last chapter... there's one more... hang on...


	37. Chapter 37

**A/N: **This is the last chapter. The end. Cry. No more after this. Even if there were, I wouldn't be able to post them for over a week, 'cause I'm going away and will NOT have internet access. I don't know if I'm gonna post any more fanfic after that or not... I've got lots of ideas but lots of summer homework. And there is no way I'll have time during the school year. Sorry. Thank you so much for reading, but you're probably tired of this by now anyway. I might be getting kinda tired myself. Thanks for all the reviews!

Chapter 37:

Christmas carols filled the room as packages were torn open left and right. It was funny, really, watching the adults go crazy as the only child in the room fell asleep. She had the largest pile of presents, of course, and couldn't have cared less. In another year, of course, it would be an entirely different scenario.

Freddie was opening her presents for her. Scooby was in hog heaven, having just unopened his twelth box of Scooby Snacks. Shaggy and Velma were kissing under the mistletoe, feeling liberated now that they could be open about it. When they were done, Velma reached under the tree, pulled out a package, and handed it to Daphne.

"Here," she told her. "This isn't really a present; I'm returning something."

Daphne opened it.

It was the outfits she had given Velma last August.

"Bet you didn't think you'd fit into them again," Velma told her, grinning.

Daphne blushed and smiled at the same time. It was true; virtually everything she had gained during pregnancy had come right off during the last month. Somehow Daphne was good at that sort of thing.

"Anyway, I figured if they would fit you again, you should have them back." Velma didn't mention that it was one of two criteria for Daphne's possession of the clothes, seeing as the other was a joke that Daphne probably didn't remember. The scary irony was that both happened to be the case here.

"Thank you so much, Velma!"

Velma turned back to the mistletoe, where Shaggy was anxiously awaiting.

-------------------------------

Somewhere over the course of the day the gang had drifted into the room with the fireplace, hot chocolate and rendeer-shaped cookies in everyone's hand except Janice's. Mr. Blake stopped by for a couple hours, then went home. His granddaughter was his world now, the world he had nearly missed, the world he loved to visit every day.

He would spoil her rotten, Daphne amused herself by thinking.

Around nine o'clock-ish, Daphne and Freddie went up to bed. With Janice awaking them every few hours, they needed all the sleep they could get. They first showed Velma, Scooby, and Shaggy their quarters. They had decided to put their friends up for the night, seeing as it was late and some of the neighbors partied too hard on Christmas, making the prospect of driving home slightly nerve-wracking.

Now Shaggy and Velma sat, content, in front of the fireplace, once more blissfully alone. Scooby was already up in their room, still enchanted at having opened more boxes of Scooby Snacks than he had ever owned in his life.

They watched the flames merrily dance and play.

"Merry Christmas, Velma," Shaggy told his girlfriend.

"Merry Christmas, Shaggy," Velma answered, leaning against him.

She checked the clock on the mantle. Midnight. Three hours together really could fly by. Yet they were likely shorter for Velma than they were for Shaggy, due to the fact that once they were over she had to tell him what she feared would have spoiled his Christmas.

She opened her mouth just as he was opening his.

"It's been great, hasn't it Velma?" He was so secure, so unassuming...

She nodded. "Yeah... it has..." She felt his warm, comfortable hug linger on her, then she sat up.

"Shaggy?" she asked.

"Yes?"

"There's something I need to tell you. Something we weren't counting on…"

**THE END**


End file.
